The Chinese dream is becoming a popular theme in modern day China. However, with dreams there comes doubts and misunderstandings. These have been emerging both at home and abroad. My friends Liu Ge, Shu Taifeng, Lei Sihai and I decided to collaborate on a book to examine the Chinese dream and its current conditions, as well as the difficulties and prospects facing it.

After six months of intensive work, the book was finally complete and it enjoyed great popularity.

The writing process was a real challenge. The biggest question was: If we need to narrow the scope down to 10 questions, then what should they be? Also, given the numerous books on the Chinese dream already published, what would make our book stand out?

After a lot of discussion and deliberation, we reached a consensus: The questions should reflect the true feelings of the people; they cannot avoid the problems that exist. Our analysis should be an objective evaluation of China’s reality, while showing the hope for China’s future.

Finally, we chose to focus on the following aspects: people’s livelihoods, finance, the economy, education, urbanization, public morals, the legal system, population, war and foreign relations. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of China’s policies in these areas, and the direction of their respective reforms.

During the process, I found that the Chinese media were generally more negative than the international community. Many foreign officials, scholars and celebrities have expressed the idea that “the world’s future relies on China’s efforts.” However, in China, opinions in the media, especially on the Internet, ran very much in the opposite direction.

China is currently in a period where conflicts of opinion have exploded. This exposure has, on the one hand, promoted the country’s progress. On the other hand, it has intensified internal debate, made the basic standards of right and wrong more confusing, and denied China’s traditional culture.

As a result, there is anxiety and fear in Chinese society. A feeling that “China is about to collapse” has been created and is likely to slow the country’s revival.

This has led directly to the popularity of “complaint culture” in Chinese society today. Complaints about the government and criticism of officials can be found all over the liberal-leaning media and in online discourse.

Contrary to this, those who support the government and understand the complexities which function throughout a country as big as China, risk being labelled as shills that have been paid off by the government.

It’s well documented that China does face a number of social problems. However, looking back over the past 20 years, it has made the fewest mistakes of any major country. It has found the most distinctive development path and has the best future prospects lined up.

Therefore, if anyone asks me about my feelings since completing the book, I immediately respond with hope that the Chinese people can have more confidence and understand that China’s rise is creating history. This way, they can eventually overcome the self-abasement and pessimism which is prevalent today. Self-confidence is important for China, whose modernization is still in the early years of progression.

Take the United States’ 170-year-long modernization process (1790-1960) as an example: It dealt with anticolonial rebellion, plagues, civil war, sandstorms, two world wars, social unrest, ethnic conflicts, environmental pollution, the assassination of a president, a nuclear crisis and many other situations.

Even after the 1960s, it suffered from a series of national crises - including government scandals, strikes and terrorist attacks. However, all these have only made the American people stronger and improved their national system. It was during this whole process that the American dream was fostered and realized. The Chinese people should learn from their experiences.

The main problem facing China is that it should try, by all means possible, to deal with the sudden information explosion brought on by the Web 2.0 era. We should move the online atmosphere away from one which takes pride in abusing the government, while refusing to understand it. Discourse needs to become more balanced.

Chinese society is not getting worse. It’s just that in this information rich era, negative information takes on bigger and bigger proportions. In fact, the complaints of the public and the panic-stricken government are a reflection of the unrest caused by ongoing change.

Facts are more convincing than rumors. The rise of China has repeatedly proven that current difficulties are temporary, partial and solvable.