In recent years, there have been calls from senior officials and national media to widen China’s focus from mere GDP growth to making citizens happier. Influenced by these calls, in January 2011 Guangdong Province introduced the “Happy Guangdong” project as one of its goals for the 12th Five-Year Plan period, which runs from 2011 to 2015.

The book “Confucius From the Heart” by Beijing University media studies professor Yu Dan was a smash hit nationwide in 2008 after it struck a chord with Chinese who had seen an increase in their material wealth, but felt spiritually empty.

In the 1970s, China’s per-capita GDP was only US$290 (1,906 yuan). Housing was basic and people struggled to survive. Private bathrooms, personal transportation, refrigerators, televisions, cassette players and telephones were all unreachable dreams, according to China Dialogue.

Since then, China has conducted an extraordinarily successful war on poverty. So in January last year, Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang, who was a notable omission from the newly announced Politburo Standing Committee, lowered the GDP target for the next five years, telling media: “We want to grow a little slower in order to grow a little better. We’ve already overtaken Singapore in terms of the size of our economy, but we hope to overtake it also in terms of GDP per capita, happiness, and social civilization.” The province pledged to focus on things like political accountability, combating corruption, education and the environment to increase the contentment of the populace.

Party Secretary Wang Yang looking happy

Head of the Guangdong School of Social Sciences, Liang Guiquan, said China is still suffering from the social disorder. In Chinese, the phrase “见物不见人” means, “seeing things but not seeing people,” according to today’s Southern Metropolis Daily. He puts this down to the Cultural Revolution.

This week, officals at the 18th CPC National Congress pledged to introduce a mentality of 见物又见人, which is “seeing things and seeing people.”

I think most of us agree that money can’t buy happiness. But are you seeing evidence that Guangdong is getting happier as GDP growth slows? Or are the platitudes a way to manage expectations for slower-than-expected growth?