Common folk-wisdom runs that happiness is found in community. That we were happier in the past, in smaller, more tightly-knit communities; villages, towns, family units. That a big cause of the modern malaise is the fracturing of communities into ever more isolated units; single people living alone.
常见的民间智慧是，幸福存在于社区中。 我们过去更快乐，在更小、更紧密的社区；村庄、城镇、家庭单位。 现代不景不景的一个重要原因是社区分裂成越来越孤立的单位；单身人士独居。
Governments have been formed, and have failed, upon the idea of the country as a community.
政府是根据国家作为一个社区的想法成立的，但失败了。
But does community make us happy? The best questions rarely have answers, but lead to yet more questions. In Yuval Noah Harari’s seminal work, “Sapiens”, he argues, “Happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations”. Big ideas. Let’s start with a consideration a little closer to home; our communities abroad.
但是社区能让我们快乐吗？ 最好的问题很少得到答案，但会导致更多问题。 在Yuval Noah Harari的开创性作品《智人》中，他认为“幸福并不真正取决于财富、健康甚至社区的客观条件。 相反，它取决于客观条件和主觀期望之间的相关性。」 大想法。 让我们从离家近一点的考虑开始；我们在国外的社区。
It takes some time in a new place to find a community, and communities of foreigners are notoriously transient. Having recently moved away from Nanjing, I find myself reflecting on the groups I was part of there and the time it took to form those bonds. Aside from the obligatory community of colleagues, shared interests are usually the building blocks of becoming part of something.
在一个新的地方找到一个社区需要一些时间，而外国人社区是出了名的短暂的。 最近搬离南京，我发现自己在反思我在那里加入的团体，以及形成这些纽带所花的时间。 除了义务性的同事社区外，共同的利益通常是成为某事一部分的基石。
And then, of course, there are those with whom you find yourself randomly flung together, often after meals, KTV and baijiu, or all three.
当然，还有那些你发现自己随机在一起的人，通常是在饭后，KTV和baijiu，或者三者。
Living abroad, non natives of a country often have that instant bond of reflecting on the unusual situations into which we have put ourselves. Our connections get accelerated, as the ice-breaking is done for us; we can gravitate to each other in situations a little out of our comfort zones.
在國外生活，一個國家的非本地人往往有立即反思自己所置之不尋常的境地的纽帶。 我们的联系加快了，因为破冰是为了我们；在稍微超出舒适区的情况下，我们可以互相吸引。
I will always remember being told by an Indian friend of mine in the UK her process on entering a room full of unknown people, say at a party. She will scan the room, make eye contact with, and give a nod of recognition to, any other person of Indian heritage in that room, despite them being a total stranger. It appears community, or at least solidarity, can be formed immediately, springing out of shared bonds of heritage.
我永远记得，我在英国的一个印度朋友告诉我，她进入一个满是陌生人的房间的过程，比如在一次派对上。 她会扫视房间，与房间里的任何其他印度血统的人进行眼神交流，并向他们致敬，尽管他们完全是陌生人。 似乎社区，或者至少是团结，可以立即形成，从共同的遗产纽带中涌现出来。
While not sharing this experience, I was fortunate to find a welcoming community of dancers in Nanjing; the fantastic Dream Dance group run by Mia (check them out if you’re into salsa and bachata!), who teaches in both Mandarin and English, and caters to veterans and newcomers alike. Nothing quite forges a community like a hobby, especially one that throws you face-to-face with strangers!
虽然没有分享这段经历，但我很幸运地在南京找到了一个热情的舞者社区；由Mia经营的梦幻梦幻舞蹈团体（如果你喜欢萨尔萨舞和巴查塔舞，请看看他们！），她用普通话和英语授课，并为老手和新人提供服务。 没有什么比爱好更能培养一个社区了，尤其是让你与陌生人面对面的爱好！
Wherever and however you find your people, Harari states that you will only be as happy as you expect yourself to be, on top of your material living conditions.
无论你在哪里，以何种方式找到你的人民，Harari都表示，除了物质生活条件之外，你只会像你预期的那样快乐。
He would argue that the reason we look back on our recent agricultural past, and its idyllic-seeming rural life, as a golden age for community and happiness, is because we did not expect more out of it. We did not assume that life owed us anything. The modern rise in individualism, hand-in-hand with capitalism, has raised human expectations of what we could and should have.
他会争辩说，我们回顾最近的农业过去，以及它看似田园诗般的农村生活，作为社区和幸福的黄金时代，的原因是我们没有从中期待更多。 我们并不认为生活欠我们什么。 个人主义的现代兴起，与资本主义齐头并进，提高了人类对我们可以和应该拥有的东西的期望。
So if we expect ourselves to have as much as our peers, we will be proportionately less happy than when we don’t. Our objective living conditions could be very good, certainly far better than those of a farm labourer, 200 years ago, toiling in the rice paddies of Asia or the cold, wet farms of Northern Europe. But because we have seen more, we want more. Contrastingly, the labourers and peasants of our recent past never saw themselves as being able to have more.
因此，如果我们期望自己拥有和同龄人一样多的东西，我们会比没有时更不快乐。 我们的客观生活条件可能非常好，当然比200年前在亚洲稻田或北欧寒冷潮湿的农场劳作的农场工人要好得多。 但因为我们看到了更多，所以我们想要更多。 相比之下，我们最近的工人和农民从未认为自己能够拥有更多。
Religion and culture had not beensupplanted by modern individualism.
宗教和文化并没有被现代个人主义所取代。
The people were doing better than their ancestors. They had food to eat and a roof over their heads. They were “happier”. The fact they lived in small, tight-knit communities is by-the-by.
人民比他们的祖先做得更好。 他们有食物可以吃，也有屋顶。 他们“更快乐”。 事实上，他们生活在小而紧密的社区。
Harari has more to say on communities; “Any large-scale human cooperation; whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe; is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination”…
Harari对社区有更多话要说；“任何大规模的人类合作；无论是现代国家、中世纪教堂、古城还是古老部落；都植根于只存在于人们集体想象中的常见神话”……
Huh? Cities and churches don’t exist outside my imagination? Can I have some of what he’s got?
嗯？ 城市和教堂不存在在我的想象之外？ 我可以拿一些他的东西吗？
At the risk of butchering the elegant prose and sharp concept construction of Sapiens, I shall briefly summarise his ideas; human beings have created systems of cooperation, such as religion, money and wider communities such as countries, and from our abilities to use language and delayed gratification to transcend our biological limits.
冒着屠宰智人优雅的散文和尖锐的概念构建的风险，我将简要总结一下他的想法；人类已经创造了合作体系，如宗教、金钱和更广泛的社区，如国家，以及我们使用语言和延迟满足的能力，以超越我们的生物限制。
Whereas many members of the animal kingdom undoubtedly exist in small communities or even large herds or packs, it is only humans who seem able to organise cooperation on a truly massive scale, with a goal in mind beyond seeking shelter, protection in numbers, food or a mate.
虽然动物王国的许多成员无疑存在于小社区，甚至是大群或群体中，但似乎只有人类才能组织真正大规模的合作，其目标不仅仅是寻求住所、数量保护、食物或伴侣。
So if these human constructs, these communities, served us so well, allowed us to spread and flourish and conquer the world as a species, why, too, do we have such conflict? And what is to be done if we do, in fact, have large-scale fragmentation of previously close communities, and a rise in expectations for our lives not met by a rise in our material conditions?
因此，如果这些人类结构，这些社区为我们服务得如此之好，允许我们作为一个物种传播、繁荣和征服世界，为什么我们也有这样的冲突呢？ 事实上，如果我们确实有以前亲密的社区大规模的分裂，对我们生活的期望上升，而我们的物质条件的上升没有满足，该怎么办？
Somewhere between the folk wisdom and the anthropology of Harari is, at least, agreement that happiness cannot come from these things.
在民间智慧和哈拉里人类学之间的某个地方，至少是共识，幸福不能来自这些事情。
As I said, I don’t have the answers. But somewhere amongst the KTV, the bachata, and the baijiu, there is at least community to be found. And if we keep our expectations in check and realise that, maybe, this is enough for the time being, we should find at least some fleeting joy.
正如我所说，我没有答案。 但在KTV、bachata和baijiu之间的某个地方，至少可以找到社区。 如果我们控制住我们的期望，并意识到，也许，这暂时已经足够了，我们至少应该找到一些转瞬即逝的快乐。
