It is difficult to define happiness. You can hardly expect a person to give a yes or no answer within a few seconds of being asked "Are you happy?"

Yet this question became the most popular catchphrase during the National Day holiday earlier this month. CCTV launched a new program titled Holiday survey: Are you happy? which saw reporters conducting random street interviews in a number of cities, asking local residents whether they were happy.

The surveys have yielded some unexpected and humorous results. When asked to share the worst thing that's ever happened to him, a college student waiting to buy a railway ticket replied, "Someone cut in line right in front of me when you asked if you could interview me."

Mo Yan, who became the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature last week, said that he doesn't know how to answer this question because he never thinks about it.

CCTV reporters might have found themselves in an awkward situation when receiving such responses. Many interviewees appeared to have the sense that the program was simply subtly pushing them to answer that they were happy.

There is a larger social context behind this hastily planned program. As China's global status has risen and people's material lives have improved, the public's sense of security and happiness has experienced a decline. City dwellers are being asked to shoulder skyrocketing housing prices, migrant workers consider it a luxury to travel back home, and young people take the civil servant exam over and over in an attempt to secure a life-long job.

In one interview with a migrant worker, a CCTV reporter got the following answer: "You found the wrong person to interview. I am only a migrant worker." Conveyed through his words were his feelings of inferiority and estrangement from the wider urban community.

But there was an answer hidden in his response: He is not happy when he is made to feel ashamed about his own status.

Chinese people are not accustomed to being asked if they are happy; meanwhile, the fast pace of daily life hardly allows them any time to dwell on their feelings. People feel stuck with their lives and continually complain about the same things, be it social unfairness, their workload, or their finances. If true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, it's regrettable that these are what most Chinese people don't have time for.

Comparatively, people in other parts of the world find their spirits lifted over the smallest things. When I traveled to Kazakhstan recently, I was told that rather than saving money for their descendants, which is what most Chinese do, Kazakh people often even spend future earnings to buy what they want and enjoy their lives. As Arthur Rubinstein, a Polish-American classical pianist once said, "Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition." It appears Chinese people set too many conditions for happiness. When people spend their lives striving with no end in sight, it is hard for them to have a sense of satisfaction and happiness.

Therefore, don't expect a simple answer to the question of whether someone is happy. If CCTV would have followed this rule, it would have spared itself some embarrassment, and would not have embarrassed others as well.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. wangwenwen@globaltimes.com.cn