With the financial crisis in 2008 deepening its impact all over the world, the reconsideration of development has come to the center of the stage of social science. Instead of entirely relying on the gross domestic product measurement for development evaluation in tradition, policymakers, scholars and media begin to pay attention to happiness studies. Along with the increasing importance of global governance, national happiness becomes a new consensus to measure development internationally, which will surely put some weights on public policy making and global governance.

According to the standard provided by the World Bank, China has become an upper-middle income economy. How to avoid the “middle-income trap” is of great significance to China’s development. Chinese national happiness studies not only provide new perspectives to complete the existing framework of analyzing development mechanism, but also offer great values on policy making.

On January 23, the Brookings-Tsinghua Center will host a public seminar featuring Brookings Senior Fellow Carol Graham and Chinese scholars of happiness studies. The seminar will discuss happiness studies under an international context and its implications for China from interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives.