Editor's note: Published in November, 2013, the book More Time for China, More Time for Dream swept the book market and was reprinted three times in only six weeks. Wang Wen, one of the four writers, shared the ideas behind the book and how it came into being.

Along with the Chinese dream becoming a new theme for Chinese society, voices of doubt and misunderstandings emerged both at home and abroad. My friends Liu Ge, Shu Taifeng, Lei Sihai and I decided to write a book together to elaborate on the Chinese dream, to elaborate on its current condition, as well as the difficulties and prospects facing it.

After half a year of hard work, the book More Time for China, More Time for Dream 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, how would our book stand out?

After a lot of discussion, 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 also showing the hope for China's future.

Finally, we chose to focus on the following aspects: peoples' 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 also the direction of their respective reforms. Also, we suggested tentative solutions to problems we identified.

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, and especially on the Internet, ran very much in the opposite direction.

Currently, China is at a period where conflicts have exploded. This exposure has, on the one hand, promoted the country's progress. On the other hand, it has also intensified internal conflicts, made the basic standards of right and wrong more confused, 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 supporting the government and understanding the complexities in a country as big as China risk scolded as simply being shills that have been paid off by the government.

The truth is that these rumors, such as the fear of collapse, are absurd. They are not ground in the face of the huge achievements that China has made. China does face a number of social problems, but 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 it has the best future prospects.

Therefore, if anyone asks me about my feelings since completing the book, first of all I say that I 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 prevalent today. Self-confidence is important for China, whose modernization has not been going on for very long.

Take the United States' 170-year-long modernization process (1790-1960) for example: It dealt with anti-colonial 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 crisis 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 all possible means to deal with the sudden information explosion brought on by the Web 2.0 era, and we should move the atmosphere online 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 proved that current difficulties are temporary, partial and solvable.

The author is Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China

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