The Approval List of Major NSSFC Projects in Art in 2020 was released recently. The project titled “Research on the Improvement of National Happiness Index by the Culture and Tourism Industries” declared with Professor Bai Changhong as chief expert was approved. With its subprojects being respectively undertaken by Professor Shi Peihua (director of the Collaborative Innovation Center under Provincial-Ministerial Co-construction for the Development of Modern Tourism Industry), Professor Chen Ye (deputy director of the Collaborative Innovation Center under Provincial-Ministerial Co-construction for the Development of Modern Tourism Industry) and Professor Li Hui (Cheung Kong Scholar), and with a number of young teachers and doctoral students such as Tuo Yanzhen, Meng Fanqiang, Li Zhong, Pan Jixiong, Yang Dejin, Li Xiaoyi, Li Chunxiao, Liang Sai and Bi Jianwu as participants, this project is declared by the College of Tourism and Service Management under the support of relevant scholars and experts from such institutions as the College of Business of Nankai University, the Research Institute of China Culture and Media Group, the Communication University of China and the Tencent Culture and Tourism Industries Research Institute.

The declaration of this project comes at a time when COVID-19 is raging. This epidemic brings about a deep impact on people of all countries, an unprecedented challenge to the world political and economic pattern and a major test of security to the common destiny of mankind. This major global crisis has once again triggered us to think about the ultimate goals of social development and progress, and to reexamine such major issues as health, livelihood, sustainability and human well-being.

In response to major national strategic issues in the high-quality development and integration of the culture and tourism industries in China, this project takes “improving national happiness index” as the goal and establishes a theoretical logic integrating “theory, mechanism and governance”. Subproject 1 combs basic theories regarding the improvement of national happiness index by the culture and tourism industries from the perspective of theory, constituting the cognitive basis and theoretical cornerstone of this subject; subproject 2 explores the construction of the industrial happiness index and its contribution to the national happiness index from the perspective of mechanism, constituting the methodological tools and analytical basis of this project; subproject 3 studies the target direction, main task, main path, main measure and system design involved in the improvement of national happiness by the culture and tourism industries from the perspective of governance.