Koala, Be Happy: A Young Woman’s Struggle and Search for Happiness—World Literature Union Youth Forum · Session 6

Koala, Be Happy: A Young Woman’s Struggle and Search for Happiness—World Literature Union Youth Forum · Session 6

On September 5, the World Literature Union and the Xuemo Foundation hosted an online discussion of Xuemo’s new novel, Koala, Be Happy, for the sixth session of the World Literature Union Youth Forum.

Qiuzi, who has studied Xuemo’s work for more than a decade, delivered a keynote speech. Yanjin Chen of People’s Literature Publishing House, the novel’s editor, shared the book’s development and readers’ responses. Many scholars, young researchers and readers also attended.

The novel follows a young woman whose troubled family history, wrong decisions and her failure to meet social expectations end in tragedy. Participants discussed her pursuit of happiness and considered how people cope when life brings them pain and disappointment.

The Pressure to Be Happy

Qiuzi began by analyzing the title. He read “Koala, Be Happy” as both a wish for the protagonist and a personal pursuit of what she wants for herself. The difficulty, he suggested, lies in expecting everything to go well so that she is protected from everything she finds painful.

He linked Koala’s behaviour to emotional wounds dating back to her family life. She lacks a sense of security and depends heavily on other people’s approval. When she cannot find reassurance, she looks for ways to escape.

Qiuzi admitted that “as long as I’m happy” can often serve as a “mantra.” Someone under pressure may need to stop measuring every decision against other people’s expectations. But Koala uses the same attitude to avoid confronting her every setback in life. It gives her temporary relief without helping her deal with the consequences of her choices.

Her story leads to a question that we often neglect: if we expect life to be easy all the time, how do we respond to experiences that inevitably hurt us?

Learning to Live with Disappointment

Chen asked whether happiness depends on favourable circumstances or on a person’s ability to cope when those circumstances change.

Drawing on Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist thought, Qiuzi argued that reliance on external approval makes people vulnerable. A relationship may end, someone’s opinion may change, or an expected opportunity may disappear. People need something that can sustain them through such losses.

He described three practices: self-cultivation, emotional balance and public service.

Through self-cultivation, he explained, people examine their values and decide what deserves their commitment. Emotional balance helps them respond to success and failure without allowing either to dictate every action. Concern for others gives them responsibilities and interests beyond their immediate feelings.

In Qiuzi’s account, a person who has something worthwhile to do does not need to keep asking whether they feel happy. Satisfaction can be produced from the work, relationships and commitments they make.

He connected this argument to Xuemo’s exploration of Heart-mind Civilization. The novel tests these ideas through a character’s real-life decisions and their consequences.

How the Book Got Its Title

Chen recalled that the manuscript was originally titled The Tattooed Heart. During the editing process and reader research, she had an epiphany, and the phrase “Koala, be happy” lingered in her mind. She discussed it with author Xuemo, and they agreed on the book title of the simplified Chinese version, Koala, Be Happy.

Readers’ responses after publication appeared to support the choice. The familiar slogan to “be happy” is a sign for people who feel anxious, exhausted or disappointed. It expresses a sincere wish, but it can also leave them wondering why they cannot feel the way they are expected to.

The discussion addressed the gap between those expectations and common human experience. Life includes frustration, loss and uncertainty. Participants considered whether accepting these experiences might help people respond to them more effectively.

Koala’s problem is that she seeks relief from painful feelings without establishing a correct way to cope with them. Her story prompted a further question: how much control can people exercise over their responses, even when they cannot control what happens to them?

The Questions Behind Koala’s Story

The forum connected this question to the novel’s treatment of family trauma, social pressure and personal responsibility. Koala’s circumstances help explain her choices, while the consequences of those choices give the discussion its urgency.

Xuemo uses a fantastical narrative to examine these connections. The loss of a young life asks readers to consider what might have helped her: a better understanding of her emotions, the ability to face disappointment, and a purpose beyond personal fulfillment.

For Qiuzi, concern for other people was essential to that purpose. Someone who recognises that their actions matter to others has a reason to remain engaged with life, even during periods of unhappiness. His reading of the novel placed that responsibility at the heart of its account of self-understanding and the possibility of self-redemption.

Happiness and the Inner Life

This led Chen to ask a question about the source of happiness: does it come from the conditions in which people find themselves, or does it depend on how firmly their inner lives are grounded?

Qiuzi offered a thoughtful response, drawing on Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist thought. In his view, happiness that depends on other people’s approval is especially fragile. When a relationship changes, when others judge a person differently, or when familiar living conditions are disrupted, the pleasure that depended on them may disappear just as quickly. What gives people the strength to live is not the promise of uninterrupted ease and happiness. It is the ability to remain open-minded and composed even when they encounter disappointment, failure or suffering. Such strength allows people to face difficulties without losing their sense of inner stability.

He summed up this process as “self-cultivation, emotional balance and public service”. Self-cultivation means establishing a foundation for life that does not depend entirely on external circumstances. Emotional balance means developing the ability to remain steady, so that gains, losses and changing feelings do not constantly pull one’s inner life in different directions. Public service, in this sense, means gradually extending one’s concern beyond “Am I happy?” to include “Are others happy?” The concern is no longer with the quality of one’s own feelings, but with the well-being of other people. When someone has a sense of direction in life that matters more than their personal need, happiness need not be forced. Like fruit that falls when it is ripe, it can follow naturally as that purpose takes shape. The novel offers a vivid example of how Xuemo puts his philosophy of the heart-mind into literary practice.

Chen then described how the title had taken shape, recalling the process from her perspective as the novel’s editor. The manuscript was originally called The Tattooed Heart. As she worked on the text and gathered readers’ views, the phrase “Koala, be happy” struck her as particularly moving. After repeated discussions with Xuemo, it was confirmed as the title of the simplified Chinese edition. The public response after publication supported her judgment. The widespread insistence that people should “be happy” exists alongside a less comfortable reality: many are caught in exhausting cycles of worry and self-doubt. The repeated call for happiness reveals how difficult it is for so many people to feel happy at all.

She then asked what happens when the life we actually experience does not match the life we had expected. Do we have the capacity to accept disappointment and make room for the imperfections of ordinary life?

Koala’s predicament offers a warning about happiness pursued solely as a pleasant emotional state. Without the inner strength needed to support and sustain it, such happiness remains fragile. The question therefore shifts from “Why should I be happy?” to “How can I take charge of my own happiness?” This means asking whether we can stop treating happiness and unhappiness as absolute opposites, with one to be pursued and the other rejected. Can we make room for the experiences we would not choose, as well as those we welcome? Can we accept the full range of circumstances life brings and face its changes, joys and sorrows with greater composure?

This is where the novel’s literary value meets its relevance to contemporary life. Koala, Be Happy offers no standard answer to the problem of happiness. Through a fantastical narrative centred on a young woman’s death, Xuemo examines the relationships between family trauma, work pressures, personal fixations and inner growth. Those relationships are explored gradually, encouraging readers to reexamine their own lives. Lasting happiness, in this account, is possible when people are no longer self-centered. They must step out of their comfort zone and into the wider world, develop a firmer faith and bring greater stability and order to their inner lives.