Epilogue

In 1955, Qian Xuesen, a rising star scientist at Caltech, who later would become the father of China’s space program, was deported by the United States on the charge of being a Communist. Before boarding the President Cleveland for Hong Kong, Qian told a crowd of reporters at the Los Angeles harbor, “I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness.” In 1991, when receiving his friend and former Caltech colleague, Frank Marble, in Beijing, Qian said quietly, bewilderingly and apologetically to his visitor, “You know, Frank, we’ve done a lot for China. People have enough food. They are working and progress is being made. But Frank, they are not happy.”1

In a public gathering held on February 12th, 2010 to celebrate Chinese New Year, Premier Wen Jiaobao proclaimed that the all the Chinese government has done and will do is “to make the Chinese people live with more happiness and dignity,” renewing the same lofty dream Qian held more than half a century ago.2 At the annual National People’s Congress in March 2010, the pledge to ensure the Chinese people lead a better life, with happiness and dignity, was reiterated in Wen’s 2010 Government Report and stressed as an overarching task for the government in the decades to come. A year later, when Premier Wen presided over the National People’s Congress for the last time, he reiterated the government’s commitment to building a “happy China.” On March 19th, 2011, The Economist reported on its cover page, “China pursues happiness, not growth.”3

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This shift in the government’s mission from socialist modernization, a goal that had been driving the Chinese economic reform since its inception, to a better life with happiness and dignity for the Chinese people reflects the sea change in values and attitudes that have occurred during China’s transformation to a market economy. Wen is fully aware that economic development, let alone a growing GDP, does not necessarily increase happiness. He also knows well that economic development cannot be sustained, nor does it mean much, unless it increases the happiness and the quality of life in general for the people.

Moreover, the Chinese government in modern times, under both Nationalist and the Communist rule, has always perceived itself as a vanguard in modernizing China. Its mission has always been project-centered, be it “Socialist Transformation,” “Four Modernizations,” and more recently, “Economic Reform and Opening up.” The pursuit of happiness, on the other hand, is humanist in orientation and can hardly be materialized by political campaigns in a top-down fashion. As Adam Smith told us in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, one of Wen’s favorite books, the pursuit of happiness rests upon a tranquil and modest mind in a free society where justice prevails.

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice. Wherever prudence does not direct, wherever justice does not permit, the attempt to change our situation, the man who does attempt it, plays at the most unequal of all games of hazard, and stakes every thing against scarce any thing. [. . .] In the most glittering and exalted situation that our idle fancy can hold out to us, the pleasures from which we propose to derive our real happiness, are almost always the same with those which, in our actual, though humble station, we have at all times at hand, and in our power. Except the frivolous pleasures of vanity and superiority, we may find, in the most humble station, where there is only personal liberty, every other which the most exalted can afford; and the pleasures of vanity and superiority are seldom consistent with perfect tranquillity, the principle and foundation of all real and satisfactory enjoyment. Neither is it always certain that, in the splendid situation which we aim at, those real and satisfactory pleasures can be enjoyed with the same security as in the humble one which we are so very eager to abandon. examine the records of history, recollect what has happened within the circle of your own experience, consider with attention what has been the conduct of almost all the greatly unfortunate, either in private or public life, whom you may have either read of, or heard of, or remember; and you will find that the misfortunes of by far the greater part of them have arisen from their not knowing when they were well, when it was proper for them to sit still and to be contented. The inscription upon the tomb-stone of the man who had endeavoured to mend a tolerable constitution by taking physic – “I was well, I wished to be better; here I am” – may generally be applied with great justness to the distress of disappointed avarice and ambition.4

 

Modern economists, who are used to reducing consumer behavior to utility-maximization, may be bewildered to read that Adam Smith penned this paragraph. The moral spirit captured in this long paragraph is so different in character from the “economic man” that populates modern economic theories. The stupendous loss in the depth and richness of human nature is a noticeable part of the price we have paid in transforming economics from a moral science of man creating wealth to a cold logic of choice in resource allocation. No longer a study of man as he is, modern economics has lost its anchor and drifted away from economic reality. As a result, economists are hard pressed to say much that is coherent and insightful, although their counsel is badly needed in this time of crisis and uncertainty.

In the meantime, it is probably more than a coincidence that Smith’s tone and message resonates strongly with ancient Chinese wisdom. “Isn’t it a joy to study and regularly practice? What’s more, isn’t it a joy to receive friends from afar?” These are the opening sentences of the Analects of Confucius. The subject of study that Confucius refers to is not limited to book learning. It also includes character building, cultivating social relationships, learning how to run a family and govern a country, and ultimately, bringing harmony to the whole world. Learning about humanity and gradually perfecting it in our daily life, especially in the company of kindred spirits, fills us with joy and serenity. Remembering his most favorite student, Yan Hui, who devoted himself to learning but died an early death, Confucius applauded, “Eating out of a bamboo container, drinking out of a gourd ladle, and living in a narrow shack – others would be utterly dejected, Hui always remained happy.” At a time when most people were struggling to eke out a meager existence, learning was inevitably a luxury pursuit affordable by only a few. “Make people rich first; then educate them,” goes the pragmatic teaching of Confucius.

In the pursuit of wealth, the division of labor and the market for goods have long been appreciated as essential institutions. Together, they are responsible not only for the improvement of economic productivity but also for the development of new products, allowing the market economy to constantly evolve and never be short of novelty. Enabling us to think independently and critically and to explore the world in our own way, the market for ideas nudges us to get into closer contact with reality in nature and our human society. The life experience of each of us might be a small drop in the ocean. But our distinctive individuality and rich diversity together make human society resourceful and resilient. When the market for goods and the market for ideas are together in full swing, each supporting, augmenting, and strengthening the other, human creativity and happiness stand the best chance to prevail, the material and spiritual civilizations march on firm ground, side by side. In the everlasting pursuit of human happiness and dignity, the story of how China became capitalist, as extraordinary and transformative as it is, is but a small leap forward.