neither pursuing happiness with unhealthay life style, nor living a quiet boring life style without sense of happiness, is a good life style. we should strive for a balanced life style. no matter where we live, if possible. It is not a one way or the other thing, sometimes, things fall in the middle.
in America, life could be boring, going to work and come home all the time, but we can spice it up by taking vacations regularly, attend some events on the weekends, going to catch a show/play sometimes. When we miss Chinese culture, we could watch Chinese cable TV, rent DVD's in America, and we could have some Chinese friends too. And we could buy Chinese food. As for how to co-mingle into the American culture, well, never too old to learn, if we learn, we would undertand more of the culture, and more of the "insight jokes". then we will feel more comfortable.
if living in China, we can try to cut down the eating out, party nightly, try to pursue some balance.
it is easy to say, hard to do sometimes, of course, but it is possible, to live a balanced life style if we try hard enough.
"balanced life style" means a life style combining work and leisure, suit to our individual taste. While "perfect life style", is something else, which i am not sure we can achieve in this current world environment, no matter where.