ClydeR
07-06-2021, 06:35 PM
This post will be censored in China, where all mention of tangping is strictly forbidden.
Five years ago, Luo Huazhong discovered that he enjoyed doing nothing. He quit his job as a factory worker in China, biked 1,300 miles from Sichuan Province to Tibet and decided he could get by on odd jobs and $60 a month from his savings. He called his new lifestyle "lying flat."
More... (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/world/asia/china-slackers-tangping.html)
Mr. Luo's blog post was removed by censors, who saw it as an affront to Beijing's economic ambitions. Mentions of "lying flat" — tangping, as it's known in Mandarin — are heavily restricted on the Chinese internet. An official counternarrative has also emerged, encouraging young people to work hard for the sake of the country's future.
Mr. Ding thinks young people should work hard for what they love, but not "996" — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — as many employers in China expect. Frustrated with the job search, he decided that "lying flat" was the way to go.
"To be honest, it feels really comfortable," he said. "I don't want to be too hard on myself."
To make ends meet, Mr. Ding gets paid to play video games and has minimized his spending by doing things like cutting out his favorite bubble tea. Asked about his long-term plans, he said: "Come back and ask me in six months. I only plan for six months."
Xiang Biao, a professor of social anthropology at Oxford University who focuses on Chinese society, called tangping culture a turning point for China. "Young people feel a kind of pressure that they cannot explain and they feel that promises were broken," he said. "People realize that material betterment is no longer the single most important source of meaning in life."
Sounds like hippies in the 1960s in the United States. Next they'll have tie-dye and pot.
Five years ago, Luo Huazhong discovered that he enjoyed doing nothing. He quit his job as a factory worker in China, biked 1,300 miles from Sichuan Province to Tibet and decided he could get by on odd jobs and $60 a month from his savings. He called his new lifestyle "lying flat."
More... (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/world/asia/china-slackers-tangping.html)
Mr. Luo's blog post was removed by censors, who saw it as an affront to Beijing's economic ambitions. Mentions of "lying flat" — tangping, as it's known in Mandarin — are heavily restricted on the Chinese internet. An official counternarrative has also emerged, encouraging young people to work hard for the sake of the country's future.
Mr. Ding thinks young people should work hard for what they love, but not "996" — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — as many employers in China expect. Frustrated with the job search, he decided that "lying flat" was the way to go.
"To be honest, it feels really comfortable," he said. "I don't want to be too hard on myself."
To make ends meet, Mr. Ding gets paid to play video games and has minimized his spending by doing things like cutting out his favorite bubble tea. Asked about his long-term plans, he said: "Come back and ask me in six months. I only plan for six months."
Xiang Biao, a professor of social anthropology at Oxford University who focuses on Chinese society, called tangping culture a turning point for China. "Young people feel a kind of pressure that they cannot explain and they feel that promises were broken," he said. "People realize that material betterment is no longer the single most important source of meaning in life."
Sounds like hippies in the 1960s in the United States. Next they'll have tie-dye and pot.