Constructing China's independent knowledge system calls for distilling distinctive concepts to provide innovative scholarly interpretations of Chinas modernization practice. The Chinese expression of “a better life” unfolds as a distinctive Chinese discourse, Chinese narrative, and Chinese solution, suited to the scholarly need for interpreting the Chinese path to modernization. The Chinese discourse of “a better life” is a discourse that unites the interpretive with the normative, the critical with the constructive, the national with the cosmopolitan, and the spontaneous with the conscious. The Chinese narrative of “a better life” unfolds, at different relational levels, between human beings and things, the self and the self, person and person, humanity and nature, and China and the world, as narratives of common prosperity, free development, social solidarity, harmonious coexistence, and a shared future, respectively, forming an integrated narrative system. The Chinese solution for “a better life” is a governance program that transforms the institutional advantages of the Party's leadership into the efficacy of creating a better life; a cultural program empowered by the “two integrations” at its core; and a civilizational program driven by the new path of Chinese modernization and a new form of human civilization. The Chinese expression of “a better life” carries not only Chinese significance but also worldhistorical implications.
