Happiness in Shanghai down 8.3% in 2005

OK, not quite. But Shanghaiist discovered the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences is studying this problem. According to this report (in Chinese), the SASS has released the results of its research into that most profound of subjects -- human happiness (or the lack thereof). They began by interviewing 4,950 residents of Shanghai from all walks of life to find out what makes them happy. One of their astounding results is that professional success and income do not determine happiness. Another interesting conclusion is that men's happiness level tends to increase as they enter middle-age (owing to greater professional success, income -- even though that kind of contradicts the first statement), while women tend to see their happiness decrease in proportion to the pressure of raising kids and taking care of parents. We haven't seen the whole report, but our inner social scientist surmises that sex (or the lack thereof) has something to do with this as well. Actually, we could never cut it as social scientists -- we actually read this report (in Chinese), which refers to a study done four years ago (nationwide, we believe) that found that in terms of achieving orgasm, men garnered 62.5 points while women only got 38.6 points. We're not sure if these "points" mean percentage (that's our guess, at least) or something else. Shanghaiist knows that there are starving children out there and all, but we're still making a plea for better sex, because that too is a way of making the world a better place for you, me and the entire human race. If you need some tips on positions (in Chinese), you can find plenty of information on the internet. There's just no excuse for unhappiness!