Tibet and Happiness in Chinese Media Discourses

This chapter analyses happiness discourses in Tibet. It juxtaposes the official discourse of Tibet as a happy place resulting from economic development and favourable social policy with the “hidden transcript” based on the importance of Tibetan culture, which also manifests itself in the “infrapolitics” of the subordinated and desperate Tibetan population. The chapter draws on close analysis of media reports on happiness in Tibet and concludes that linking economic prosperity to happiness is a legitimizing tool by the Chinese government and a discourse mostly directed at China’s Han population, who, from a distance, do indeed perceive Tibet as a “happy” place. For Tibetans happiness constitutes more than prosperity and includes a revival of Tibetan spiritual culture, into which much of the newly accumulated prosperity is invested.