1 Introduction

Although the study of subjective wellbeing (SWB) originated and developed in the West, an emerging body of literature from the East has revealed intriguing findings about how it is constructed in East Asian cultures. Research is beginning to emerge from China. Most reports in this literature are limited to student samples. For example, when asked to write essays under the title “what is happiness?”, Chinese students define it as a desirable and positive inner state of mind (Lu 2001; Lu and Gilmour 2004). Studies have shown that Chinese students self-report a medium level of SWB that is significantly more collectivist than individualist in orientation (Zheng et al. 2004), and varies according to their socioeconomic status (Tong and Song 2004) and academic achievement (Dianzi and Ronghua 2006). There is also evidence that SWB correlates with personality attributes (Furnham and Cheung 1999; Zheng et al. 2004) and with the acculturation styles of Chinese students studying overseas (Zheng et al. 2004).

The utility of existing research is hampered by the predominant use of Western measures which may be culturally inappropriate in non-Western countries such as China. One way to overcome this problem is to study people’s satisfaction with various life domains, which are sufficiently broad to apply across countries (e.g., Scollon et al. 2005). For example, the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI; Lau et al. 2005; International Wellbeing Group 2006) is a scale that probes participants’ satisfaction of eight domains: standard of living, personal health, life achievement, personal relationships, personal safety, community-connectedness, future security, and spirituality/religion. These areas of satisfaction should collectively indicate people’s satisfaction with their life as a whole (International Wellbeing Group 2006). The PWI is now being used by a growing community of scholars in more than 48 countries (International Wellbeing Group 2006), and has been translated and administered in various languages, including Algerian, Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Tibetan), Croatian, Dutch, English, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Norwegian, Persian, Russian, Slovakian, and Spanish (Lau and Cummins 2003). Previous use of the PWI in China has shown that it is a culturally appropriate instrument to use; it is has also good validity, reliability and discrimination, and similar psychometric properties to its use in Western samples (Lau et al. 2005).

Although research has revealed interesting findings, it is in an early stage of development compared to Western research. One limitation is that extant studies are confined to collegiate and urban samples. Further research is needed from a range of demographic groups to gain an overall understanding of Chinese citizens’ subjective quality of life. Little is known about the SWB of rural residents in mainland China even though they constitute 60% of the population. There are reasons to suggest that the SWB levels of rural residents may differ from those previously reported in Hong Kong. There is a marked divide in terms of objective measures of wellbeing; this distinction hinges particularly on socio-economic terms, as rural residents—commonly labelled as peasants in China—are the poorest members of society (Dreyer 2000; China Statistical Yearbook 2007). As Perry and Selden (2000, p. 5) remarks, “China in the course of a few decades has moved from the ranks of the world’s most egalitarian societies to one of the most unequal in its distribution of income, wealth, and opportunity”. For example, the national average income per person in the first quarter of 2007 was 4323 RMB in urban households and 1261 RMB in rural households; for Hunan province (where the present study was conducted) it was 4072 RMB in urban households and 1235 in rural households (China Statistical Yearbook 2007). As another example, the national illiteracy rate in rural China is 10% compared to the urban rate of 3.6% (China Statistical Yearbook 2007). Other rural-urban differences include greater emphasis in rural areas on traditional attitudes and behaviour, in contrast to more liberal and Westernised urban lifestyles in Hong Kong; and social hierarchy, as farmers are considered to have lower status in Chinese society (Dai et al. 2006). However, whilst traditionally used objective indicators such as income (Cummins 2000) have been used to characterize rural Chinese residents in terms of low quality of life (Dreyer 2000; Khan and Riskin 2001; China Statistical Yearbook 2007), little is known about how satisfied they are with their lives. In an effort to remedy this oversight, this paper investigates SWB and its determinants in rural China using the PWI and in-depth interviews.

It is difficult to predict Chinese peasant’s SWB levels. On the one hand, their subjective satisfaction with life could be in agreement with objective measures based on their low living standards and income. Indeed, there is evidence from China and the West that socioeconomic factors impinge on people’s wellbeing (e.g., Cheung and Leung 2004; Lam et al. 1999; Mullis 1992; Wan 1992; Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002). Therefore, Chinese peasants could have comparatively lower levels of SWB than in Hong Kong and Western countries that have resources that are conducive to the attainment of satisfying life experiences. Conversely, an alternative and convincing view is that rural Chinese residents’ SWB levels are not significantly different to other sections of Chinese society. This claim is supported by earlier research that has demonstrated positive levels of life satisfaction amongst groups that live materialistically simple lives; the notion that income enhances SWB seems to hold true when it enables people to meet their basic needs (Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002; Biswas-Diener et al. 2005). Indeed, a broad and consistent phenomenon that has emerged from existing research (discussed later) is that most people—whether they live in rich industrialized societies or materialistically simple ones—seem to be satisfied with their lives (Diener and Diener 1996; Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002; Biswas-Diener et al. 2005). Although adverse factors can drive SWB below the normal range, in normal conditions—regardless of rural or urban residency—SWB should be maintained within a positive range. Thus, in the context of the PWI, SWB does not vary freely over the 0–100 scale, but is held fairly constant (e.g., Tiliouine et al. 2006). For the Western population, the normative range is 70–80 points on a 0–100 scale distribution, with a mean of 70.5, although these values are generally around 10 points lower for Chinese populations, presumably due to a cultural bias (Lau et al. 2005). For example, Lau et al. (2005) found that residents in Hong Kong reported lower SWB mean scores than an Australian sample. One reason why Chinese participants prefer to self-report moderate scores in psychometric tests is the high value attached to modesty in Chinese culture.

In the present study, preliminary fieldwork in the rural village (which included discussions with residents) revealed that the peasants appeared—at least anecdotally—to be satisfied with their lives. Whilst a world away from the luxuries of Hong Kong and other developed societies such as Australia, conditions in the village seem to be sufficient to uphold the maintenance of SWB. During the past few years, the Chinese government has instilled a range of initiatives designed to alleviate rural poverty, and discussions with the residents revealed that living standards had improved. There appeared to be no pertinent factors that could compromise the life domains probed by the PWI. Further, the sample was from a normal population in the sense that the residents were not experiencing adverse conditions such as stress, disability, etc., nor were they experiencing an adverse political or economic situation. Based on the above reasoning, we hypothesized that rural Chinese residents’ SWB levels in the present study should fall within the normative range of the Chinese population previously reported in the literature (Lau et al. 2005).

2 Methodology

2.1 Instruments

The PWI was administered to tap domain-level representation of global life satisfaction. A Chinese version of the scale was supplied by the International Wellbeing Group. It had previously been translated using a rigorous procedure to assure that the translated items have valid meanings (Lau et al. 2005).

A seven-item scale was used in the present study, as the new eight-item version was approved after the data had been collected. Answers were reported on a 11-point Likert-type scale with anchor points of “completely satisfied” (10), “neutral” (5), and “completely dissatisfied (0)”. Statements in the PWI include: “How satisfied are you with your standard of living?”; “How satisfied are you with your personal relationships?”; and “How satisfied are you with your future security?”. Extensive use of the scale has demonstrated high reliability, validity, and sensitivity between demographic groups, both in the West and in China (Tiliouine et al. 2006; Lau et al. 2005). In the present study, the PWI demonstrated adequate internal consistency (see Sect. 3).

To reveal more information about the reasons that shaped participants’ satisfaction ratings, interviews were held after they had completed the PWI. The questions were semi-structured and open-ended, and mirrored the seven questions of the PWI scale to enable participants to describe their experiences. Participants’ comments were clarified by probing responses with specific follow-up questions (Fielding 1993; Seidman 1998). They were also asked whether any recent special events had occurred that might have troubled them. The PWI scale and interview techniques were practiced and piloted before data collection to ensure that they were understood and are appropriate. The interviewer had grown up in a rural Chinese village and was therefore able to establish rapport with the interviewees.

2.2 Location and Sample

The study location was a rural farming village about 80 km from Hengyang city in Hunan province (southeast-central China). The choice of village was based on the interviewers’ convenience. A door-to-door and street survey was conducted in the summer of 2006 with 277 residents aged 18–69. They were selected using stratified quota sampling: strata and quota were calculated using the demographic profile of the study area (The China Population and Development Research Centre in Beijing supplied demographic data). In order to account for the effects of possible socioeconomic differences (income and education level), residents were sampled only if their yearly income was not higher than 8,000 RMB; if their education was at primary or middle school level; and if they were married. It should be noted, however, that almost all villagers encountered met these criteria.

Not every participant was interviewed after they completed the PWI; a total of 52 interviews were conducted. Every fifth respondent was selected to be interviewed. The sample reflected a similar demographic composition to the survey sample (Table 1).

Table 1 Gender and age characteristics of the participants
Full size table

2.3 Procedure

The PWI was administered in verbal format and was self-completed by the participants. Each participant was assured that their individual data would remain anonymous. Although no time limit was set, participants generally completed the questionnaires within 10 min. After a participant had completed the questionnaire, they were interviewed (see above).

2.4 Data Analyses

Descriptive statistics were used to summarize satisfaction ratings and demographic variables. Parametric comparisons (t-tests and ANOVA) were employed to assess the significance of differences between gender and age groups. Cronbach α, inter-domain correlation, and covariance determined the internal reliability of the PWI, whereas its validity was confirmed using bivariate correlations. Likert scale data were standardized into units of %SM on a 0–100 distribution. The data were checked prior to analysis to ensure that there was no response bias that could have confounded the results.

Information from interviews was analysed qualitatively; the questions were open-ended and the analysis reflected the experiences the participants reported. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for narrative analysis. In order to understand the ideas that emerged, the interview answers were examined for common themes into which segments of narrative were organized. The themes were then pieced together (described below) to form a comprehensive picture of the participants’ collective experience.

3 Results

3.1 Satisfaction Ratings of the PWI

Table 2 lists the means and standard deviations of the satisfaction ratings. The mean domain ratings ranged from 57.8 to 69.9 (SD: 15.8–24.0), and the overall PWI score was 64.24. This score is within the normative range of 60–70 points for Chinese respondents (Lau et al. 2005). The rural residents’ PWI scores are similar to those previously obtained in Hong Kong (65.9; Lau et al. 2005). That is, participants’ satisfaction with “standard of living”, “personal relationships”, “personal safety”, and “health” are above the PWI score, whereas “life achievement”, “feeling part of the community” and “personal safety” lie below. A statistical comparison (unequal variance t-test) of the mean ratings of the rural sample, and previously published data from a Hong Kong sample (Table 2), showed that the PWI scores, and individual domain ratings, did not differ significantly, expect life achievement (t = −2.9800, df = 455, p = 0.002).

Table 2 Satisfaction ratings of the PWI
Full size table

The data were analysed further to probe for gender and age differences. Males reported a significantly higher PWI score (66.6) compared to females (62.6; t = 3.90, df = 1937, p = <0.001; Table 3), and this is attributed to higher satisfaction scores for “personal relationships” (t = 2.46, df = 275, p = 0.015; Table 3) and “feeling part of the community” (t = 2.2, df = 275, p = 0.029; Table 3).

Table 3 Participants’ satisfaction ratings amongst different gender and age groups
Full size table

The PWI score also differed according to age (F 3,1935 = 2.76, p < 0.04; Table 3). Specifically, the oldest age group (50–59+) was significantly less satisfied with their health than the other three groups (F 3,279 = 10.7, p = <0.001); younger residents (20–29) were less satisfied with life achievement than their elders (40–59+; F 3,279 = 3.83, p < 0.01); oldest age groups (40–59+) were less satisfied with personal safety than younger people (F 3,279 = 3.23, p = 0.023); and age groups reported different ratings for satisfaction with the community (F 3,279 = 6.11, p = <0.001).

3.2 Internal Reliability and Validity of the PWI

The Cronbach α coefficient for the PWI was 0.75, which demonstrates good reliability, and is similar to previous research in Hong Kong (0.80; Lau et al. 2005). The item total (domain-PWI) correlations ranged from 0.19 to 0.49, and many items demonstrated an item-total correlation higher than 0.30. With the aim of determining the coherence of the subscales, the domains were subjected to a principal components analysis, followed by a varimax rotation. The principal component analysis revealed that the domains correlated with at least one other variable at 0.30. This confirms the suitability of the data for factor analysis. The factorability of the correlation matrix also met other assumptions. These included Kaisen–Meyer–Oklin values which ranged from 0.6 to 0.8, and a highly significant (p < 0.001) Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Factor analysis revealed the entraction of one factor; the seven items of the PWI loaded 0.53–0.75 on their factor, and explained 34% of the variance, which is similar to the 38.3% found by Cummins et al. (2003). It can be concluded that the reliability and validity of the PWI that was established in previous research has been confirmed here.

3.3 Interviews with Participants

The qualitative data were analysed to identify common themes that shaped participants’ life satisfaction. These are discussed below, along with representative quotations to illustrate the themes.

3.3.1 Standard of Living

An underlying theme that emerged was that the participants seemed content with their living standards. A point repeated in the majority of interviews was that they felt they had enough to satisfy their lives. They have food, housing, access to medical services, and supportive family and community groups. Many homes had media access (telephone, television, etc). A wide range of goods were available in the nearby town centre.Footnote 1

Another common topic was that although participants acknowledged that their income is low, they did not consider themselves to be poor. One participant’s (male: 40–49) comment was particularly representative of the interview responses:

“I am quite satisfied with my standard of living. I think life in the village is simple and enjoyable, and the air must be much fresher than in the city. We have a nice home. We only have a field to farm, so every day we have no worries. There is enough food, and we also have fruit trees”.

The villagers tended to compare their current living standard with the past. Life in the village is different to the poorer past conditions. They reported that there had been a marked improvement in living standards during the past decade, particularly in recent years. One woman (50–59) gave her view:

“The town has changed during my lifetime, particularly during the past ten years. The toughest time was in the Cultural Revolution when my parents had no food. Nowadays, living standards in the village are better than they have ever been, and I am satisfied with my life”.

A theme that did not emerge was that the perceived quality of village life is worse than in cities. Participants were asked about what they thought of living conditions in the cities. Lack of awareness of life outside the village was a recurring theme in the qualitative data. The majority of respondents had lived in the village all of their lives, and few had ventured outside except for some trips to the local town. Few had visited the affluent coastal cities of South China, and none had visited Hong Kong. They had little knowledge and experience about the quality of city life, although some participants said that they had learned some information through the media and from villagers who had returned from working in cities.

A few participants had experienced life in a city or urban area. They had moved there to search for work. Amongst them, most said that they preferred their rural town. This was because they had encountered bad experiences when they had moved there. Their difficulties included: finding a job, a low salary, and restrictions to undesirable and dangerous jobs that the city residents do not want. They had also found difficulties adjusting to city life. This is how one man (20–29) explained his experience:

“I went to Shenzhen [a southern coastal city] and found a job in a shoe factory. Although the salary was higher than farm work, it was much lower than that of the city people. I lived in the factory and worked 10-hour days. I had 2 days holiday a month, and often had to work unpaid overtime. The working and living conditions were harsh, and I was ill frequently. I was not better in the city. I also faced discrimination, and the local people look down on outsiders, especially rural folk. Although many people my age look for work in the cities, our life is tough and not better than in the village”.

3.3.2 Health

According to the qualitative data, almost all participants perceived themselves to be healthy. However, it became apparent in the interviews that participants had limited knowledge of health and sickness. The majority of participants found it difficult to explain the meaning of “healthy living” or “good health” as they knew little about different types of illness and disease. They found it difficult to define illness or what caused it. If they felt unwell, they often did not know what the problem could be, and ignored it.

When asked how they deal with illness, the majority reported that they paid no attention. However, a minority of participants said that they treat minor health problems with medicine which is available from the town drugstore.

There is an accessible medical centre (with several medical doctors and nurses) in the nearby town. Despite the availability of medical services, almost all participants said that they rarely saw a doctor. They only visited a doctor if they become severely ill (when asked to define “severely ill”, a common reply was “when I can no longer stand up or walk”). There were two reasons for not seeing a doctor: the first (mentioned above) was that they rarely considered a health problem to be serious enough. There was also a consensus amongst participants that seeing a doctor is expensive; therefore, a visit to the doctor is usually not an option unless they are seriously ill.

Some older participants complained that they are not as healthy compared to when they were younger. Discussions with them showed that this seemed to be a normal age-related decrease in health. Another commonality was that the older men continued to endure hard farm labour, which they found more challenging as they got older (older women did not go to work, and instead were housewives and took care of their grandchildren).

3.3.3 Life Achievement

Participants reported that their main goals in life are to: have children and grandchildren; have lots of children; that their children and grandchildren be successful; filial piety; a happy marriage; being successful; and being respected in the local community. There was variation according to age: older participants focused on having lots of descendents and a harmonious and successful family; middle-aged participants emphasised having a happy family, good health, and enough money to support their family; whereas younger members tended to list a good job as their main goal in life. A common view among younger participants was frustration due to the lack of employment opportunities in the village; their lifestyles and choices are limited. They were seeking a good job but realised it was difficult or impossible to achieve. They wanted a job with a high salary or high societal status, but were acutely aware that such jobs did not exist in the village or town, and that their limited education background and guanxiFootnote 2 made it difficult for them to find a good job elsewhere.

3.3.4 Personal Relationships and Community-connectedness

A general consensus among those interviewed was the belief that they lived in harmony with most of the other villagers. A common comment was that relationships between the peasants were “pure”, which was defined in the context that people did not seek benefits from their friendships. All participants reported good relationships with their neighbours (in many cases, their neighbours were members of their family). One lady (31–39) said:

“I am very satisfied with my personal relationships. I have lots of relatives and friends in my town, and I am talkative and happy when they are around. We are close, honest, and friendly”.

Another lady (aged 41–49) commented:

“I am totally satisfied with it. I have been living here all my life, and I have the feeling that I am a complete member of the village. I am proud to tell others where I am from. The people in the village have a great community spirit, and we all help each other”.

There was a strong sense of community spirit. Everyone seemed to know everyone else, and they felt that other villagers’ lives and opinions mattered. They liked to be together with their neighbours and friends, and felt that the group provided physical security. A reoccurring comment was that the people viewed the village as a big family. This explanation hinged on the belief that the village consists of many generations of the same ancestors. Although familial relationships amongst people are now less clear, there was a sense of the community being a family.

It was also evident that they cared about what other people thought about them, and felt the need to conform to community norms. When asked to explain any recent conflict, examples given included the non-return of borrowed money and items, and land disputes when two farmers with adjacent fields encroached on land. If there was an important matter to discuss, or a big problem to solve, the normal procedure was to solve it collectively—the village got together to discuss it.

3.3.5 Personal Safety and Future Security

Most people reported that they had no concerns with their personal safety. The village was generally regarded to be a safe place, with no major crime. Some older residents reported concerns about their personal safety, particularly in terms of living and going out alone. This was blamed on the behaviour of the younger generation, which was perceived to be rude and sometimes violent. Some older participants explained that the youngsters liked to imitate Hong Kong kungfu movies, and blamed the younger generation for a recent increase in theft in recent years. Even so, a major theme emerging from all interviews was that the town is regarded as a generally safe place to live. There is a small police station in the nearby town, although its main role is to deal with administrative tasks such issuing ID cards and census registers. The participants reported that they seldom turned to the police for help as they perceived the police to be inefficient and tried to benefit from cases.

The villagers reported few concerns about their future security. Their outlook for the future was generally positive. This is because living standards have improved during recent years and they expect further improvements. Another common reason for lack of concern about the future was their strong family and community groups which would provide help if they had any problems. Younger participants expressed some concern about their future security, as jobs in the village were limited (discussed above).

4 Discussion

The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which residents in a rural Chinese village are satisfied with their lives. This line of enquiry is worthwhile because existing research about SWB in China is confined to student and urban samples.

The rural sample’s PWI score (64.24) is within the normative range for the Chinese population, and is similar to previous studies from Hong Kong (65.9; Lau et al. 2005). Similarly, as in the Hong Kong survey, the present study showed that satisfaction with “standard of living”, “personal relationships”, “personal safety”, and “health” were above the PWI score, while ‘life achievements’, ‘feeling part of the community’ and ‘personal safety’ lie below. Almost all mean satisfaction scores (six domains) in both the rural and Hong Kong samples did not differ significantly. The generalisability of the PWI scores, coupled with the good reliability and validity of the scale in the present study, support its appropriateness for use in China and, therefore, across countries.

That the residents in a remote rural village report similar levels of SWB to those in affluent Hong Kong and Australia may perhaps seem surprising, as there is published research about correlations between SWB and wealth. Correlations between income and SWB, and the risk of unhappiness, appear to be greater in poorer nations and amongst poorer people (e.g., Diener et al. 1993; Biswas-Diener and Diener 2001). For example, the findings of Biswas-Diener and Diener (2001) revealed that in the slums of Calcutta, income was strongly related to SWB, which was attributed to the use of money to meet universal needs such as food and shelter. In the present study, the interviews with participants revealed several explanations why their satisfaction ratings are within the normative range for the Chinese population. They can be discussed in light of theoretical models that have been advanced to explain income and SWB relations (Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002). First, although rural Chinese are comparatively less well-off than people in developed nations in objective socio-economic terms, their conditions seem sufficient to maintain SWB within the normal range. Income enhances SWB only insofar as it helps people to meet their basic needs; that is, money can enhance SWB when helps to avoid poverty, but has less influence thereafter (this is known as the “Human Needs Hypothesis”; Diener and Lucas 2000; Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002). Participants in the present study seemed content with their living standards and all seven domains that the PWI measures (their basic needs are being met). Another observation was that relative standards evaluations (known theoretically as the Relative Standards model; Diener and Lucas 2000; Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002) may be important explanations for the high levels of SWB reported among the villagers. They occur when people find standards against which to compare themselves, such as comparison to other people and their possessions (social comparison), their previous situation (temporal comparison), and even to one’s aspirations and expectations (Festinger 1954; Albert 1977; Michalos 1985; Diener et al. 2002). Relative standards evaluations were evident in the present study, as a reoccurring theme was the villagers’ lack of awareness of the conditions outside the village. Most of them had stayed in the village all of their lives, and few had visited outside expect for visits to the local town. They had not visited rich cities such as Hong Kong. The villagers were not able to make an informed comparison with urban living conditions. Further, they made temporal comparisons, as another reoccurring theme in their interviews was the tendency to compare and praise their current (better) living standards to those (which were worse) in the past. Although rural villagers are at the low end of China’s wealth distribution, during the past ten years rural poverty has declined significantly and their standard of living has improved markedly. These improvements have taken place because the Chinese government has instilled a range of initiatives designed to alleviate rural poverty. China is developing and modernizing, and the increase in Chinese people’s living standards are trickling down to the rural villages. Although previous empirical evidence has demonstrated the importance of relative standards evaluations in mediating SWB (e.g., see Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002), more work is needed in rural China to investigate their importance in accounting for SWB. Future research could measure how much attention the villagers pay to relative standards.

When discussing the relationship between SWB and income in rural China, it is important to bear in mind that the Western notion that “money buys happiness” may not necessarily generalize to East Asian countries. China is a collectivist country. Previous correlations of income and satisfaction that hold truer in individualist cultures (e.g., Diener et al. 1993; Diener and Biswas-Diener 2002) may not be important when the individualism component is removed in analyses (Cummins 2000). Indeed, the relationship between objective and subjective measures is complex, and further work is needed to understand it, particularly in non-Western cultures. Recent studies have defined more precisely the distinct Chinese conceptions of SWB and happiness. For example, Lu and Gilmour (2004) compared American and Chinese views of SWB in terms of individual-oriented SWB (ISWB) and socially orientated SWB (SSWB). They found that the Chinese possessed stronger SSWB than the Americans, while the Americans possessed stronger ISWB. This was explained on the basis of differences in collectivism-individualism between countries (Hofstede 1980; Kim et al. 1994). Thus, Western interpretations emphasise a highly individualistic pursuit of happiness, based on individual interests and personal successes, whereas the East Asian view is socially orientated and achieved via fulfillment of social and moral role obligations (Hofstede 1980; Kim et al. 1994; Kwan et al. 1997; Lu and Gilmour 2006). The importance of collectivism was evident in the present study. A common theme emphasized throughout several life domains was the importance of families and the community. For example, participants’ main life goals centered on their families; their satisfaction with personal relationships and community connectedness focused on relationships in the village; and also play a role in future security. This is because family life is extremely important in Chinese culture. Confucian ideology advocates a collectivist ideology in which the family is the basic unit of society, and the individual is subordinated to the family group (Hofsteade 1980; Solte and DeVose 1998). The parent-child relationship is particularly important, and children serve their parents with filial piety—respect, duty, obedience and subordinating self-interest (Hsu 1998). However, there was an interesting contradiction to the interpretation that the collectivist cultural orientation in China is an important determinant of SWB. Feeling part of the community was the lowest rated aspect of life satisfaction, while having personal relationships was the highest rated. Further investigation is needed to understand this apparent contradiction.

Last, it should also be noted that other research has also found similar results amongst groups who lead materialistically simple lives and live in cultures substantially different from typical respondents in industrialized cultures. For example, Biswas-Diener et al. (2005) found that the Kenyan Maasai, the United States Amish, and the Greenlandic Inughuit report positive levels of life satisfaction, domain satisfaction, and more frequent positive emotions than negative ones. These findings have led researchers (e.g., Diener and Diener 1996) to suggest that most people—in both industralised societies and those far removed from them—are happy and satisfied with their lives when their social and physical basic needs are met. A range of theories have been proposed to explain the psychological processes that mediate this phenomenon (see Diener and Biswas-Diener 2000 for a review), including temperament and personality, Ahedonic treadmill, social comparison theory, and homeostasis (Costa and McCrae 1988; Diener and Diener 1996; Cummins and Nistico 1999). There may also be an innate and evolutionary underpinning (Buss 2000). Further work is needed to explore how these theoretical frameworks could explain why most people in different societal groups—such as peasants in rural China—appear to be happy and satisfied with their lives.

Several satisfaction scores differed according to gender and age. Males reported a significantly higher PWI score compared to females, and this was attributed to higher satisfaction scores for “personal relationships” and “feeling part of the community”. Unfortunately, interviews with participants did not reveal reasons for this difference, and more research is needed. The analysis of PWI scores revealed that older residents were less satisfied with their health and personal safety. This finding is interesting as age has not been considered to be a very important influence on SWB, indicative of the ability of older people to adapt to their conditions (Diener et al. 1999). In-depth interviews seemed to explain this difference on the basis of normal age-related health changes and vulnerabilities. That is, the oldest age group was less satisfied with their health because they were not as healthy compared to when they were younger. The age difference seems to be particularly evident among the rural residents because their work is very physically demanding, which older people find challenging. It may be that the older workers—who face job conditions not experienced by their urban counterparts—find it difficult to cope with the declines occurring in older age. There were also age differences with regards to satisfaction with life achievement and with the community; again, further research is needed to explain them. It is also important to note that the research method adopted in the study (quota sampling) is limited as it clustered participants’ age into groups, which permits the testing only of group differences, rather than correlations between age and wellbeing. Further research would need to address this oversight, and would particularly benefit from longitudinal studies which examine how SWB varies across a person’s life.

The present study has several other limitations. The study was conducted in only one village, which may have been different from other villages and rural areas. Thus this study may not necessarily be representative of, or generalizable to, other areas of rural China. The second limitation concerns the status of survey research in China, especially amongst low educated groups, and its influence on how people answer questions. For example, some respondents had limited understanding of health, yet the PWI probed their satisfaction with that domain. Although the PWI demonstrated good reliability and validity in the study, this issue raises the question of whether the measure translates well to all subsections of a population. Further, Chinese society is currently less exposed to survey methods than Western countries; consequently, respondents may have been tentative to answer truthfully, found the questions to be intrusive, or reported answers based on what they felt they should say (Davey and Higgins 2005). However, this may be a confounding factor also in Western studies. Another limitation is that SWB, as per the Diener conceptualization (Diener 1984), includes affect balance (positive minus negative emotions) which was not measured in the current study.

Despite these limitations, this study is important because it is the first report about SWB and its determinants in rural China. It shows that despite their relatively low socioeconomic conditions, rural Chinese peasants’ satisfaction levels are within the normative range for the Chinese population. More research is needed from peasants and other groups in China. China is a country with considerable diversity in its land and people, and there are ample opportunities for further work.