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Harmony as Happiness? Social Harmony in Two Chinese Societies

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  • Po-Keung Ip

Abstract

This paper reconstructs a concept of harmony in two Chinese societies: Hong Kong and China, by utilizing the measures and empirical data of harmony surveys. The data collected in harmony surveys reveal people’s perceptions of social harmony in the two places. Meta-analysis of the harmony data and the related measures yields the concepts of social harmony in the two places. A reconstructed concept is formed by integrating the extracted ones. A comparison is done between this concept and the notions of wellbeing or happiness of these two societies to identify similarities and differences. It is argued that though semantically not identical, the two concepts share enough overlaps to warrant the view that a suitably developed measure of social harmony, no less than that of happiness, could be used as a comparatively useful measure of the well-being of Chinese societies. This paper may provide a useful conceptual basis for developing such an alternative measure. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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  • Po-Keung Ip, 2014. "Harmony as Happiness? Social Harmony in Two Chinese Societies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 719-741, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:117:y:2014:i:3:p:719-741
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0395-7
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    2. Simon Matthew Herd, 2022. "Synthesising Hedonic and Eudaimonic Approaches: A Culturally Responsive Four-Factor Model of Aggregate Subjective Well-Being for Hong Kong Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 1103-1129, June.
    3. Katarzyna Mazur-Wlodarczyk & Jelena Despotovic Jeremic, 2021. "Perception of Harmonious Communication of Young Serbs in the Context of Intercultural Communication and International Economic Cooperation with the PRC," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 165-185.
    4. İbrahim Demirci, 2022. "Family Harmony and Flourishing in Turkey: The Roles of Interdependent Happiness and Harmony in Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 985-1005, March.

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