THE HAPPINESS FACTORY
Singapore Art Museum 15 April - 21 April 2014
HAPPINESS FACTORY GUIDE
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You get it when you win a race and lose it when you get laid off. Governments put it in their policies, preachers in their sermons, writers at the end of their stories. Scientists say they’ve found it on the left side of the brain. Pursuing it, Americans spend US$20 billion a year on self-help and antidepressants. But wealth isn’t working: people in the West are twice as rich as they were sixty years ago, yet no more satisfied with their lives. Twenty years from now, depression will be the biggest health burden in the world. Joy, euphoria, satisfaction, tranquility, triumph. It comes in many forms. So what makes you happy?
THE HAPPINESS FACTORY A guide to increase your happiness
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3 FIND A KINGDOM OF HAPPINESS
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CHANGE YOUR BODY, CHANGE YOUR MIND
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WORK YOUR EXPRESSIONS
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Would you be happier living somewhere else? Yes. We have that list of countries you would love to live in other than Singapore.
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HAPPINESS FACTORY GUIDE
Think living on a tropical island paradise will make you happy? In fact, the most important factor for happiness may be whether you live in a wealthy democracy or an impoverished dictatorship, according to US psychologist Martin Seligman. Perhaps that’s why Denmark comes top in the 2010 Gallup Wellbeing Survey, and Zimbabew falls to the bottom. Even so, wealthy democratic South Korea has the second-highest suicide rate in the world, and Cuba stars in the top 10 countries of 2009 Happy Planet Index. Think carefully before you make your move.
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From left to right: Sagarsunar, 10, Jigme Nidup, 8, Jitbdr, 15, and Nawraj, 7 playing Nepal versus Bhutan in Punakha, Bhutan.
T I N Y K I N G D O M I N H I M A L AYA S 70% COVERED BY TREES
THEY SAY, “HAPPINESS IS THEIR PLACE.” 8 Bhutan has a special claim to happiness. From Aristotle to speeches of 1960s US politician Robert Kennedy, the idea that collective well-being should determine how a government measures its success has cropped up time and again, but it took a Bhutanese teenager to put into practice. In 1972, the then 17-year-old fourth Dragon King of Bhutan made an off hand remark that, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.” How seriously he meant it hardly matters: when you’re kind, people listen. The government
saw the logic of trying to make people happier instead of richer, and Bhutan began to aim at improving its citizens’ wellbeing, defined through a combination of economic, environmental, cultural, social and spiritual factors. Just 50 years ago, Bhutan had no paper currency, hospitals, or public schools. Today, the UN Development Index ranks it 133rd out of 177 world countries for living standards. And yet in the same year that GNH survey came into practice, 2007, Bhutan became the world’s fastest growing economy. Happiness seems to sell. So
are the Bhutanese happy? The 2010 GNH survey recorded that the average Bhutanese answer to the question “from one to 10, how satisfied are you with your life?” was a mediocre 6.2. Asked the same question, the Swiss, who live in a mountainous country roughly the same size as Bhutan, scored an average of 8.1. Chocolate can’t be the only reason why.
BHUTAN
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THEIR HAPPINESS PRESCRIPTION
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Paint Your House
All buildings in Bhutan must be designed in keeping with traditional Bhutanese architecture, featuring traditional cornices, colors and decorative patterns, such as the flying penises painted on external walls to bring good luck and deter evil spirits.
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Love Trees
The Bhutanese constitution stipulates that every citizen must protect the environment for the benefit of present and future generations. By law, a minimum of 60 percent of the land must be forest; it is currently more than 70 percent covered in trees.
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Honour The Dead
Buddhist funeral rites usually require at least 21 days to complete. To foster the family unit, the Bhutanese government guarantees any public servant an immediate three weeks of leave if they lose a family member.
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USA
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WHERE ARE YOU THE HAPPIEST?
THERE ARE MORE RATS THAN PEOPLE IN NYC, AS MANY AS 4 PER PERSON. USA is the top migrant destination in the whole world, it has 42,788,029 immigrants, mostly from Mexico, China and Phillipines. The United States is famously devoted to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but according to the 2009 Gallup poll on well-being, USA is only the 14th happiest place in the world, below Venezuela, Canada and Israel. In Singapore, U.S is seen as a symbol of prosperity and possibility. More than 100 million worldwide dream of a life in America.
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Minnie Mouse, one of the significant icons from Disney, USA in a trash bag, symbolizing the plight of hygiene, with rats being one of the rising concerns regarding pests control in the city.
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JAPAN
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WHERE ARE YOU THE HAPPIEST?
500 CATS AND DOGS ARE LEGALLY KILLED IN JAPAN EVERYDAY. The number of foreign residents in Japan is gradually increasing, more than 2.5 million are currently residing in Japan. The numbers grew by 14.9% in five years, mostly coming from North and South Korea and China. Japan is famous for having a positive influence in the world for their entertainment industry, such as mangas, fashion and animations. But according to Happy Planet Index in 2012, Japan is in 45th place despite it being one of the top five world’s biggest economies. In Singapore, Japan is a place where it is seen as peaceful and beautiful. It is also the 43rd place people ranked as the happiest place to be at.
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Hello Kitty, symbolizing the vibrant country of Japan is being torn apart to represent the severity of animal cruelty in the nation.
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Do you want to be loved for who you really are? No. Why should you stay the same when you can look better? Check out our recommendations.
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HAPPINESS FACTORY GUIDE
In Fiji, the percentage of girls who felt ashamed of their bodies rose from 10% to 30% after the first television arrived in 1995 and one in every ten began forcing herself to vomit. In the developed world, more than half of men and women report feeling sad about their weight, and 2.5 million Americans die from eating disorders in the next 20 years. Studies show that looking at gorgeous women makes women feel disappointed with their looks and men disappointed with their lives.
I T WA S V E R Y, V E R Y PA I N F U L B U T I WA S S T I L L D I S S AT I S F I E D W I T H M Y L O O K S
THEY SAY, “IF YOU WANT TO BE PRETTY, YOU CAN.” 20 Charlene Case works as a psychologist in Los Angeles, California, a city often described as the world capital of plastic surgery. Three million cosmetic procedures are carried out every year in the USA - more than in any other country in the world. Nine out of ten of those operations are performed on women. “When I was growing up in the 1960s, classic Swedish blondes were what was considered beautiful, but I’m one-quarter oriental and had oriental eyes. I cried on my mom’s shoulder to let me get plastic surgery. My parents didn’t have much money, but
in the end she paid for it, and people go overboard with in the process of fooling around perfection and will never be with the facelift, the surgeon satisfied, but I think anything cut a nerve and paralyzed the that makes people accept left side of my face. themselves more is great. “I couldn’t close my eye for As a psychologist, I tell my a year. It was very, very painful. patients they can change I had to cover with this thick, their brain’s biochemistry by oozy stuff every night to keep it accepting themselves. protected while I slept. In three years, the nerves grew back, but my left eye still doesn’t blink much. All that vanity. There I was dissatisfied with my looks, and suddenly all I wanted to do was to close my eye. “Here in LA, if you want be pretty you can be pretty, and I think that’s fine. Everyone’s doing it, so why not? Some
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Professor Ivo Pitanguy performs a facelift, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Every month for the past four decades, Pitanguy has offered free cosmetic surgery to Brazil’s poor.
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AREAS ON IMPROVEMENT
Breasts
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Fats
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Genitalia
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Three out of four women who have cosmetic surgery say that their overall quality of life is higher afterwards, and this quality of life is most improved for those who have breast augmentations. One study followed 25 women undergoing psychiatric treatment before their operations, all but three stopped therapy.
Tummy-tuck patients report an increase in their happiness second only to those who have breast augmentations. Have liposuction with it, however (known as a “lipo-tuck”), and you face the risk of postliposuction depression — a recognized condition about which cosmetic surgeons warn their patients. No one knows why it happens.
One in 4,000 people feel that they are trapped in a body of the wrong sex. Gender dysphoric people are especially vulnerable to depression, and a 2010 US survey of 7,000 transsexuals found that 41 percent had attempted suicide. Following gender-reassignment surgery, former emotional problems are found to be drastically reduced.
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AREAS ON IMPROVEMENT
Forehead
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Hair
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Nose
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The “facial feedback hypothesis� argues that emotions are strongly influenced by facial experssions. In a 2006 US study, 10 women with untreatable long-term clinical depression had Botox injected into their foreheads, making it physically impossible to frown. Two months later, nine were no longer depressed, and the tenth had much improved.
Two-thirds of men suffer substantial hair loss before the age of 35, and balding, particularly in its early stages, is a major cause of depression. Hair implants transplant hair from the legs and back to the head, and prices are calculated on a per-follicle basis.
With over 60,000 procedures a year, Iran is the nose-job capital of the world. Costing 18 million rials (US$1,500) on average, the procedure carries status, and post-surgery bandages may be worn for months like a badge of honour. Some even wear bandages without undergoing the surgery.
Take a look at the mirror on how we respond to physically manufactured happiness — playing “facial” dress-up with the ideal facial features.
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THE HAPPINESS FACTORY
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FACIAL DRESS UP
ANGELINA JOLIE, ANNA HATHAWAY, BRITNEY SPEARS, DREW BARRYMORE, HALLE BERRY, JESSICA ALBA,
More and more women are requesting a natural-looking nose like that of Halle Berry. For the third year in a row, rhinoplasty holds its title as the most poplar facial plastic surgery procedure in 2012, according to a recent survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). It’s also the most popular surgical procedure for both men and women under 35.
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Do we take things too seriously? Yes. We have the perfect samples here to teach you the right expressions.
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HAPPINESS FACTORY GUIDE
Laughing is good exercise: it forces you to contract your diaphragm and 300 other muscles in your body. Laughing for 15 minutes everyday can help you lose two kilograms a year, according to the International Journal of Obesity. Whether spontaneous or induced, every burst of laughter releases a flow of endorphins that makes you feel better, both physically and mentally. Babies learn to laugh when they’re three months old. By the age of four, children are on average laughing 300 times per day; most adults only manage 20. Laugh more.
Gulab Chand, 35, and Ram Sangiyam, 33, workers, Sparco Batteries Private Ltd., New Delhi, India.
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T H E Y A R E N O T P A R T I C U L A R LY F U N N Y B U T I T D O E S N ’ T M AT T E R
THEY SAY, “LAUGH IS NOT OUTSIDE; LAUGH IS INSIDE.” 32 On an assembly line in Maya Puri, an industrial district of New Delhi, India, about 30 men work night and day producing car and truck batteries. This is Sparco Batteries Private Limited, here the workers are paid an average of 40 rupees (US $0.80) an hour, have a bare minimum of space in which to operate, and can’t communicate with each other because of the noise. All things considered, they don’t have much to laugh about. Nonetheless, it’s 4.30pm on a normal workday and they’re giggling and playing “Ring a Ring o’Roses” between the machines.
“Laugh is not outside; laugh is inside,” explains Jiten Kohi, 45, standing in the middle of the ring. “Once you are ready to laugh, you can laugh with anything.” Ten years ago, Jiten embraces hasya yoga, a technique that combines yogic breathing with laughter, and he is now one of the most famous practitioners in India. Since it started in Mumbai, in 1995, hasya yoga, commonly called laughing yoga, has spread to 60 countries worldwide, including Zimbabwe, Israel and Vietnam, where it is practiced enmasse by members of the Vietnamese People’s Army. Make your humor work for you.
Jiten knows laughter yoga won’t necessarily lead to permanent happiness. “Working conditions won’t be changed,” he says, “but definitely the satisfaction level will increase. Say a person makes 100 pieces of one product. If he does laughter yoga, he can make 150 or 120.” So while the workers might be feeling happier temporarily, it’s Ranjit Sain Tuli, the factory owner, who has the last laugh.
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34 FAKING A SMILE IS HARD. BUT FAKE IT ANYWAY. A THIRD OF THE TIME, PEOPLE COULDN’T TELL IF A SMILE WAS REAL OR FAKE.
THE HAPPINESS FACTORY
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FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
CAN YOU TELL?
Babies learn to laugh when they’re three months old. By the age of four, children are on average laughing 200 times per day; most adults only manage 20. A video on ‘what makes us laugh’?
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THE HAPPINESS FACTORY
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WHO HAS THE LAST LAUGH
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