每日英语：ARE THE CHINESE HAPPY?

On Weibo, China’s Twitter, this week, the second most popular topic—right behind “Tourist stabbed for returning ticket!” and above breaking news of a pop star’s divorce—was “Are you happy?” Over three million bloggers were discussing this question at once. It had been posed by a popular state-sanctioned TV program, “Hitting Grass Roots: Hearing Voices of the People,” which is in the habit of tackling one very specific social issue—traffic jams, village primary schools—per fifteen-minute episode. During the Autumn Festival, however, the show broadcast a multi-episode holiday special to capture, candid-camera style, “voices of the people” on an extraordinarily broad subject: happiness.

stab：戳伤，刺伤　　　 state-sanctioned：国有的，国家认可的　　　　extraordinarily：格外地，非常地

In Shanghai, Xian, Chengdu, and villages outside the sprawling cities, reporters made a point of cultivating diverse interviewees: university students, migrant workers, street vendors, aunties idling on the corner stoop, and even one hapless tai-chi-practicing foreigner were all met with the mike.

sprawling：蔓生的，不规则的展开的　　　　vendor：卖主，小贩　　　　hapless：运气不好的，倒霉的

This style of soliciting “commoners” is not unique on Chinese television. During the annual Spring Festival Gala, which garners the largest audience of any single television show, there are often segments in between dance and song numbers that showcase regular folks, the humbler the better. “Auntie in Hunan, what do you make of China’s development?” an m.c., swathed in a silk brocade gown, would ask live from her gilded stage in Beijing. “Glorious!” A group of villagers bundled up in blue cotton jackets and pants, crammed in front of a single beeping recorder, would form a chorus. “What do you think of the Chinese Communist Party?” “Even more glorious!”

soliciting：恳求，征求，招募　　　　commoner：平民，自费学生　　　garner：获得，存储，谷仓

showcase：展现，陈列　　　　　humbler：较低级的，更谦卑的　　　　swathe：包围，紧绑

gilded：镀金的，富有的，装饰的　　　　brocade：织锦，锦缎　　　　gown：长袍，睡衣，礼服

bundled up：穿暖和　　　　

But happiness? When did the country of 1.3 billion begin wrestling with such an amorphous abstraction?

wrestle with：全力对付，努力克服　　amorphous：无定形的　　　　abstraction:抽象，提取，概念

Only two years ago, if we are to go by official documents. In a National Party Congress report issued in 2010, happiness makes an inaugural appearance as a national goal, in a paragraph right below the one devoted to the maintenance of G.D.P. growth.

inaugural：开始的，开幕的，就职的　　　　

The Party may have work to do. In an analysis of survey data published in the New York Times, researchers report no evidence that Chinese people are, on average, any happier than they were in the pre-market-economy days of the nineteen-eighties. Richard A. Easterlin, a leader in the study, goes on to say that “Chinese people’s feelings of well-being have declined in a period of such momentous improvement in their economic lives.”

momentous：重要的，重大的　　　　

The reasons are hardly a state secret: the yawning wealth gap, lack of a social safety net for the needy, and feeble rule of law continue to undermine the happiness index as well as Party leaders’ confidence in their sustained grip on power.

feeble：微弱的，无力的，薄弱的　　　　undermine：破坏，渐渐破坏　　　　

Is this why the Web site of Hitting Grass Roots emblazons across its top the motto, coined by Hu Jintao, “Maintain the flesh-and-blood link between the Communist Party and the People”? If the goal of the broadcast network was to unify the nation and reinvigorate the people’s faith in the Party, the happiness survey seems to have been a very curious instrument. First, more than half of the people approached were suspicious or confused, obviously unaccustomed to this requisitioning of an honest opinion. “What?” an office assistant barked. “You need to explain the kind of program you are running before I answer the question.” A gruff middle-aged man waved the journalist away with a statement that has now gone viral: “Don’t ask me. I’m only a migrant laborer.” A stooped grandfather picking aluminum cans out of the trash, responded to the reporter’s question by mysteriously giving the him his surname. In Chinese, “Are you happy” happens to be a homophone for “Is your last name Fu?” Apparently, the elderly gentleman thought the happiness query so unlikely that he immediately chose to interpret the question as the latter.

emblazon：颂扬　　　　reinvigorate：使再振作，使复兴　　　　gruff：粗暴的，生硬的，脾气坏的

viral：病毒的　　　　trash：垃圾，废物　　　　mysteriously：故弄玄虚地，难以理解地，神秘地

On Weibo, Thursday night, under the thread of “Happiness,” some fifty thousand bloggers chose to partake in an “Are you happy?” survey. More than three-fifths answered an emphatic no to the question, citing, most prominently, their lack of financial means. (A popular explanation for unhappiness ran along the lines of “No house, no car. What is there to be happy about?”) Indeed, while Americans have long emphasized life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, many Chinese now seem to find property a crucial ingredient in the recipe for happiness. The thread has since been deleted from the Web site.

partake：分享，参与，分担　　　　emphatic：着重的，加强语气的，显著的　　　　

The absurdity of the responses that had been aired on the show prompted a flurry of complaints as well: Why couldn’t the videos have been edited better? Why did the reporters not do a better job of explaining their intentions before taping? One indignant forum member griped, “Hey, why wasn’t I approached??”

absurdity：荒谬，谬论　　a flurry of：一阵　　　indignant：愤愤不平的　 gripe：抱怨，发牢骚，控制

This is not an idle query. Happiness, an elusive goal that might very well have appeared frivolous a generation ago to the pragmatic Chinese, is becoming a preoccupation for both the government and the people. Chinese leaders would like to keep the people just happy enough to stay faithful to the current regime. The people are only now trying to puzzle out what happiness means to them in the context of today’s ever-evolving circumstances. The real question is: Once they figure it out, will they have the means of voicing it?

elusive：难懂的，逃避的，难捉摸的　　　　frivolous：无聊的，琐碎的　　　　pragmatic：实际的，国事的

preoccupation：当务之急，关注的事物，全神贯注　　　　regime：政体，社会制度，管理制度

puzzle out：苦苦思索　in the context of：在...情况下，在..背景下　　ever-evolving：时刻演进