The phrase “lying flat” has become popular among young Chinese. Rather than toil away at a job that offers limited possibilities for promotion or prosperity, it is better to take it easy and live a more frugal life, free from the daily grind.
Due to soaring property and commodity prices, many young Chinese no longer believe that working a “966” job — working from 9am to 6pm, six days a week — will be repaid with career advancement and affluence.
Consequently, many young Chinese are refusing to function as money-making machines for their bosses. They no longer chase after salary increases, have no interest in purchasing property and have stopped acquiring consumer goods. Instead, they advocate a minimalist lifestyle, spurning marriage and living for themselves.
If “lying flat” is interpreted to mean “low desire,” then perhaps it is more than just a passive movement and is also a silent protest aimed at a plethora of societal problems, including increased wealth disparity, unequal distribution of resources and a feeling that no matter how hard one works, one never obtains a corresponding reward.
The “lying flat” phenomenon has caught the attention of
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials — and they appear worried. This is because the prospect of economic growth is what props up the party’s rule.
There is an unwritten contract between the CCP and the Chinese public: The people keep their noses out of public affairs and do not agitate for democracy, the rule of law or human rights; in return, the party delivers increased prosperity for the masses.
If young Chinese consciously turn their backs on a consumerist lifestyle, it would inevitably have a negative effect on China’s economic growth and societal development.
As a result, party censors have shut down all of the “lying flat” forums on Douban and other Chinese social media. Even Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com have been singled out for “rectification” by party censors. Products featuring the Chinese characters for “lying flat,” including T-shirts and smartphone cases, have been removed from sale.
The party has already used state-run media to loudly condemn the “lying flat” movement. However, if the CCP goes further and attempts to snuff it out by crudely sticking its oar into the behavior patterns of young Chinese, it will certainly fail.
The “lying flat” trend will not disappear any time soon, because the crux of the problem lies in a societal environment that is ranged against the needs and aspirations of young Chinese.
China’s frothy housing market has virtually priced out aspirant middle-class Chinese. With no hope of ever owning a home of their own, many have utterly lost faith and decided to check out of the rat race.
Given the dire state of affairs, who can blame young Chinese for wanting to lie down for a while and get some much-needed rest?
Wei Shih-chang is an information technology engineer.
Translated by Edward Jones
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
RSS