manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I... literally... know... not a single Chinese person who's not ambitious or trying to kill everyone else in his grade to become top. Sorry... I do know one but we all make fun of him for being stupid and on top of that, a horrible person as well... I know just one.
I have no experience with rural China. This was in JiuHua Mountain in Nanjing. They literally said, "Nowadays it's really hard to find a kid so bad he's wasting time here when Gaokao are in a week." I finished all my finals and statewide exams in the US, just started vacation, first day out, stood there with an entomology net and a backpack full of jars hunting for rhinoceros and stag beetles and I get cursed out like this right next to me LOLOL. Really gave me the impression that every kid in the city is working in overdrive. My cousin was; she studied so hard for 2 straight years, she went from looking like Jang Nara to Guy Fieri without his beard.
Well, that's like I said, everyone's working hard to climb up the ladder no matter where they are.
That's true, but then you gotta have money. Chinese people don't play that ukelele-by-the-beach-I-need-nothing-in-life-to-be-happy shit. You gotta be impressive in some way or another; if it ain't your degree, it better be your house, car, and bank account.
Yeah I'm bros with different kinds of people too but there's pressure. When we're kids, the parents lay on the pressure about beating the kids of all their neighbors and friends until we all secretly hate each other. But it makes us stronger and that's what counts. When we're adults, we still measure ourselves and more importantly, potential partners are measuring us in the group we hang out in. Who's the best-looking, most athletic, tallest, richest, smartest, and when those guys get significantly more success than the laggards, bros they may be while drinking but a sense of inequality is going to be in the undercurrent. I feel like saying that people from all different backgrounds/capabilities are good friends so there's no pressure to perform is a gross oversimplification of the complex social web.
Oh... what are we talking about? I thought someone said that China ranked number 1 before being taken down? This whole conversation is my expressing my disbelief that China's overall happiness can be higher than countries that live on vast oil wealth.
Sexually, though, I get it. Because of the religion over there, guys don't fool around. A Saudi once told me that men are virgins until marriage, and then they stay true to their wives. I don't know about how these fellas play, but to me, there's no fun no matter how much money you have or spend if you're not doing it in a co-ed environment. So I can definitely see that impacting thier happiness.
I didn't look that closely. If India's getting a high score, then I have no idea WTF they're measuring on this.
Anyway, to your points, I just don't see what you're seeing and I didn't take a look at how they surveyed. To me, I'd assume they survey in major cities with highly competitive environments but if they went to the countryside, I'd say that's a weird choice and I don't know what they'd find.
To the other people saying that Chinese people could be the happiest due to the spirit of achievement, I really wish that were true but from the average Chinese person I've met, happiness means high income comfortable life. If we get to a point where Chinese people have a world-beating level of happiness driving by pride in accomplishments and hard work, that's superhuman. The West should just give up. I'd be like 300 except it were 300 Persians against 100K Spartans LOL
Noooooo I'm not comparing to the West. At this point, I could believe that China has generally happier than a large portion of the West. When I said yachts and mansions, I was talking about extremely high per capita GDP countries in the middle east like Qatar.
