Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"An invaluable contribution to diversifying and complicating the study of happiness across the world." * China Review International *
"This book is one of those rare edited volumes where all chapters are of high quality: beautifully written, theoretically thoughtful, and empirically grounded. The book is strongly recommended for anyone interested in the sociology of morality, cultural sociology, and contemporary China." * Contemporary Sociology *
"The volume offers nuanced and textured moral and ethical understandings of the good life in China at individual, familial, and societal levels. . . . It sets a high bar for future mappings of happiness imaginaries." * China Quarterly *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Becky Yang Hsu
1. The Changing Notion of Happiness: A History of Xingfu
Lang Chen
2. Having It All: Filial Piety, Moral Weighting, and Anxiety among Young Adults
Becky Yang Hsu
3. Performing Happiness for Self and Others: Weddings in Shanghai
Deborah S. Davis
4. Happy and Unhappy Meals: Culinary Expressions of the Good Life in Shanghai
James Farrer
5. Making the People or the Government Happy? Dilemmas of Social Workers in a Morally Pluralistic Society
Richard Madsen
6. Deriving Happiness from Making Society Better: Chinese Activists as Warring Gods
Chih-Jou Jay Chen
Epilogue
Richard Madsen
References
Contributors
Index
