Tsinghua professor drives China's happiness project

Peng Kaiping always wears a smile during his interviews. As the dean of the psychology department in Tsinghua University, he is considered a maverick in his field because of his unconventional approach to mental issues.

He helped rebuild Tsinghua's psychology department after returning to China from the University of California, Berkley, in 2008. Psychology studies had been missing from the leading Chinese university since 1952.

"Happiness is more than emotion. It is a rigorous science and science tells us everyone is entitled to be happy. The only thing needed is to find the right way," Peng says, as he prepares for his keynote speech at the UN headquarters in New York on March 20, on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness.