China Lying Flat, a "Movement" of young Chinese and Why the ChiCom Government Want Them to Stand Up

[Husky_Khan]

First off, what is "Lying Flat?"

“Lying flat” essentially means doing the bare minimum to get by, and striving for nothing more than what is absolutely essential for one’s survival.

It represents the mindset of lying down instead of being a productive member of society. Rather than striving to study hard, buy a home, or even start a family, a subsection of society is rejecting it all to lie flat.

Some have dubbed it a manifesto against materialism, some suspect it is simply being lazy, and others say this type of defeatist attitude is an inevitable result when people become so overwhelmed and dismayed by the notion of working themselves to the bone that they feel there is no other option but to give up.

It's genesis was a viral post on Baidu, a Chinese social media application, posted in April of 2021 and quickly gained traction amongst China's working age youth and seems to be a rejection of the idea of the Chinese urban staple of working long hours in the factory for little pay and instead do the "bare minimum" which involves doing temporary or day labor jobs and then living off of instant noodles, sleeping in parks and spending time in internet cafes until they run out of money. One days wages can provide three days of this bare minimum relaxation.

Needless to say this Culture of Overwork has provoked a response from the Chinese government and State media as its believed this sort of activity could threaten their demand for blue collar jobs, social welfare networks and birthrate itself if it spreads.

For months, the chatter surrounding lying flat, or tang ping, has permeated Chinese society, sowed discourse and become ubiquitous enough to finally warrant a public condemnation by President Xi Jinping.

“It is necessary to prevent the stagnation of the social class, unblock the channels for upward social mobility, create opportunities for more people to become rich, and form an environment for improvement in which everyone participates, avoiding involution and lying flat,” Xi said in comments published on October 15 by the Communist Party’s flagship journal on political theory, Qiushi.

His words address a trend that strikes at the very heart of his “Chinese dream” ideology, which he has described as the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

This "movement" has also been compared to similar movements such as the "Beatnik" movement of the United States in the 1950's, or the more contemporary Satori and Sampo Generations in Japan and South Korea respectively.

What is ‘lying flat’, and why are Chinese officials standing up to it?

Lying flat, or tang ping in Chinese, means doing the bare minimum to get by, and striving for nothing more than what is absolutely essential for survival, but this ethos poses a threat to President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream”.

www.scmp.com

 

[Cherico]

The thing about hard work is that a society can only go full tilt so long before it freaking breaks.

 

[Sir 1000]

First off, what is "Lying Flat?"



It's genesis was a viral post on Baidu, a Chinese social media application, posted in April of 2021 and quickly gained traction amongst China's working age youth and seems to be a rejection of the idea of the Chinese urban staple of working long hours in the factory for little pay and instead do the "bare minimum" which involves doing temporary or day labor jobs and then living off of instant noodles, sleeping in parks and spending time in internet cafes until they run out of money. One days wages can provide three days of this bare minimum relaxation.

Needless to say this Culture of Overwork has provoked a response from the Chinese government and State media as its believed this sort of activity could threaten their demand for blue collar jobs, social welfare networks and birthrate itself if it spreads.



This "movement" has also been compared to similar movements such as the "Beatnik" movement of the United States in the 1950's, or the more contemporary Satori and Sampo Generations in Japan and South Korea respectively.

What is ‘lying flat’, and why are Chinese officials standing up to it?

Lying flat, or tang ping in Chinese, means doing the bare minimum to get by, and striving for nothing more than what is absolutely essential for survival, but this ethos poses a threat to President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream”.

www.scmp.com

Is this a ''real'' grassroot's movement or another globalist psyop i wonder?

 

[Cherico]

Is this a ''real'' grassroot's movement or another globalist psyop i wonder?

I very much doubt it.

This happens in pretty much every culture and civilization that goes balls to the walls on working hard and long hours for years and decades at at time.

The united states had the 40 hour work movement, europe had their movement, even japan and south korea have movements like it. Essentally a culture can only maintain the kind of foreward thrust that china has done for so long before people are just spent.

Civilizations need a work life balance or they turn disfunctional as fuck.

 

[Sir 1000]

I very much doubt it.

This happens in pretty much every culture and civilization that goes balls to the walls on working hard and long hours for years and decades at at time.

The united states had the 40 hour work movement, europe had their movement, even japan and south korea have movements like it. Essentally a culture can only maintain the kind of foreward thrust that china has done for so long before people are just spent.

Civilizations need a work life balance or they turn disfunctional as fuck.

I want to believe, but i have seen so many organic movements with historical precedence fail to launch and so many movements started/co-opted by globalists that i'm having a difficult time parsing whats organic and some ngo or think tank social experiment/attack.

 

[Wargamer08]

Nah I just think it’s the standard outcome of communism. Why work eighty-ninety hour weeks when you don’t get any reward?

 

[Buba]

Nah I just think it’s the standard outcome of communism.

Not in any way related to communism.
Regardless of brand of political regime simply some people are NOT interested in the "rat race" and to some extent "drop out".

 

[Sir 1000]

Nah I just think it’s the standard outcome of communism. Why work eighty-ninety hour weeks when you don’t get any reward?

Is China particularly communist anymore though? They seem more national socialist with a communist facade than anything else tbh.

 

[ATP]

Nah I just think it’s the standard outcome of communism. Why work eighty-ninety hour weeks when you don’t get any reward?

I remembered that from some North Korean interviev with worker - "i work for comrade Kim,and he pay us with his love"
Everybody would like that reward,RIGHT comrade ?
Jokes aside - partially true,nobody smart worked hard there.I read many memories of people in Gulag - they survived partially becouse they DO NOT worked as much as they could.Those who worked 100% of norm all died./Unless they had friends in NKWD guards/