Happiness has become the core mission of 21st-century holistic education, yet its conceptualization is deeply bounded by cultural contexts. A critical gap in active education research remains: severely insufficient cross-cultural exploration between Eastern European and East Asian education systems. This paper fills this gap through a critical theoretical comparison of the cultural and philosophical foundations underpinning educational happiness concepts in China and Latvia.

Integrating Confucian/Taoist traditions with Nordic-European Enlightenment thoughts, and drawing on positive psychology frameworks (PERMA, Self-Determination Theory), this study develops a five-dimensional cross-cultural conceptual framework of educational happiness: harmonious relationships, purposeful engagement, moral-ethical development, psychological balance, and cultural foundation with identity.

The findings show that while peer relationships, teacher–student interactions, and meaningful learning are cross-cultural common pillars of happiness, fundamental conceptual divergences exist. In China’s educational context, happiness is rooted in collectivist ethics, often framed as resilience amid systemic academic pressure. In Latvia’s setting, happiness is built on individual autonomy, community belonging, and harmony with nature, treated as an inherent component of school experience.

This paper proposes a culture-responsive happiness education model to guide curriculum design and teaching practice, stressing that interventions must integrate local cultural values, educational system features, and students’ subjective needs. It offers a theoretical framework for global active education discourse, insights for context-specific happiness interventions in Central-Eastern European and East Asian secondary schools, and aligns closely with the conference’s S3 (Curriculum and Teaching) and S6 (Teacher Education) themes.