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| Chillaxing Chinese style aka 躺平 Tang Ping. Pic @ Zhi Hu* |
Some young adults in China are unhappy with the culture of long working hours, high housing prices and a very high cost of living. So, the young people are “lying flat” to express their anger. They have rejected traditional goals like getting married, having children, purchasing a home or car, and following the corporate money-making path. [Link]
I first wrote about it here, and labelled later posts under "Wu Wei", which is the ancient Chinese Taoist concept of "do nothing".
My own thoughts and after speaking to long-term residents in China is that its probably more of a beat up than a "thing". Maybe getting more coverage in the west than China. Because it goes so much against the stereotypes.
To the extent that it's around, as an idea and lifestyle in China, it's likely more amongst the single children of middle-class, well-off Chinese parents (remember whole generations of single children, result of the One Child policy). Others, the bulk of Chinese youth, may not like the relentless pace of life (they call it "involution", or 内卷 nei juan) but they've no choice but to get on with it.
The West meantime, hates China like we hate a swot. They're just too damned hard-working and so of course they must be cheating (often the are too, so that complicates matters). Of course there's Xinjiang Uygurs, domestic repression, international bullying, and all the rest of it, but there's also nascent schadenfreude, looking for, hoping for, the failure that we can glory in. The Chinese simply do too well, like the students in the US, who have to be hobbled at universities, lest they dominate freshman years. So too in manufacturing and trade. They're simply too slick and now also moving up the value chain. If China is going to face domestic problems, like youngsters "lying flat" rather than working for the great machine, so that its economic growth is impacted, so much the better for us. Or so goes the thinking. Or so goes the hope. Like here, at TechStream. If it turns out to be true then it's schadenfreude all the way down.
'Cept it's not likely to keep going. Then again, don't believe me. I've been too wrong on too many things....
*ADDED: "Zhi Hu" (知乎) is a Chinese Q&A website modelled after Quora ("modelled" as in "ripped off"), which I tend to use quite a bit. "Zhi Hu" is a mash-up of a bit of Confucius about knowledge and study:
好学近乎知， Hao Xue Jin Hu Zhi, To love learning is akin to knowledge. Confucius Analects
