World dialogue on the Chinese Dream

2. Personal

The “Personal Chinese Dream” focuses on the well-being of individual Chinese citizens and thus modifies traditional notions of the primacy of the collective over the individual. The dream of the Personal is balanced with the dream of the National. In fact, the fulfillment of The Personal Chinese Dream constitutes a good part of what it means to fulfill the National Chinese Dream. In other words, to properly fulfill the National Chinese Dream is to fulfill properly the Personal Chinese Dream. Thus the Personal Chinese Dream refutes the foreign stereotype that China sacrifices individuals to serve the purposes of the collective.

The Personal Chinese Dream can be explicated by two subcategories: (i) material or physical well-being, and (ii) mental or psychological well-being.

Material Well-Being encompasses all the necessities of life and assures that all are being well taken care of; these include education, healthcare and retirement in addition to the obvious necessities of safe food, decent housing and public security. Beyond the necessities, material well-being also includes good jobs, rich family lives, access to entertainment, among other facets of life, and to proper protections of personal rights under the law.

Psychological Well-Being can best be explained in terms of “positive psychology, the science of happiness developed under the leadership of the American psychologist Martin Seligman, who transformed the fuzzy notion of happiness into a scientific discipline, with reproducible results and professional standards.

Positive psychology uses science-based intervention to build thriving individuals, families, and communities. As such, positive psychology aligns with the Chinese Dream. Seligman explains that positive psychology stresses well-being, the content of people’s dreams and the methods that can help them to realize their dreams. Seligman outlines five pillars of well-being (described with the acronym PERMA): positive emotion (stressing what’s good), engagement (being committed, having passion for tasks), relationships (positive human interactions), meaning (being part of something larger than oneself) and achievement (clear and definable accomplishments). He argues that PERMA (and all positive psychology) is expressed by what free people choose to pursue when not oppressed. Importantly, well-being is broader than happiness, though both ideas seem to correspond to the same Chinese word “xingfu.” A person with higher well-being has higher success, innovation, spirituality and harmony. Positive psychology facilitates social stability and harmony. Well-being brings not only personal and emotional benefits, but also moral and social benefits. For example, people with higher well-being are more altruistic. A flourishing person is more likely to help others. Happier people have less racial discrimination, make fewer social comparisons and are more ready to forgive. In short, higher well-being makes better citizens. A China higher in well-being would be a China higher in creativity. When you are frightened, stressed or depressed, your mind is filled with analytical, critical thinking. When your emotions are more positive, you are better with creative tasks. How to make China’s next generation more creative? Improve their well-being!

Well-being’s rewards are also economic. People with higher well-being have better work performance, less unemployment, and care more for others. They are also healthier and require less medical care. Positive psychology resonates well with traditional Chinese values like interpersonal relationships and morality.

President Xi stressed that “well-being has to be created by diligent work and labor.” This aligns with Seligman’s rationale to expand well-being from the popular yet narrow notion of positive emotion to include engagement and achievement.

The “Chinese dream” is for individual Chinese people to flourish. As the science of flourishing, positive psychology can increase well-being and thus make Chinese people more resilient and fulfilled and Chinese society more stable and prosperous.