Abstract: With the global development of economy and the improvement of people抯 material living standard, the problem about how to raise the quality of life has attracted more and more attention. Late in the 1960抯, the study of subjective well-being(SWB) became a worldwide hot point. Recently, the cultural differences in the properties of well-being have commanded the cross-cultural researchers?great interest. By comparing the two new theoretical models: cultural norm model and goal as a moderator model, the authors investigated into the role culture played in the production of SWB. On the basis of the investigation, the relationship between emotional well-being and meaning in life was analyzed in this article.

Key words: personal goals, cultural norm, subjective well-being, meaning in life