Commentary: In China, authorities fear wanting to chill could fire off the next youth revolution
SINGAPORE: In his speech at the Chinese Communist Party's thousand centennial ceremony celebrations on Jul i, President 11 Jinping called on Chinese citizens to "be prepared to work harder than always before" to realise the goal of national rejuvenation.
He optimistically declared that "the hereafter belongs to the young people, and our hopes also rest with them."
Just if you await at what's going on in the minds of China's youths today, 11's vision might not become downward then easy. Instead of working harder than ever earlier, there is a growing youth counter-culture seeking to slow down and practise "tang ping" (躺平) – the art of lying flat.
A YEARNING FOR THE Elementary LIFE
First emerging in Apr 2022 when 31-year-erstwhile factory worker Luo Huangzhou decided to get out his job in pursuit of the simple life by travelling from Sichuan to Tibet and relying on odd jobs, tang ping gained traction afterward a photograph posted by Luo went viral.
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The term also made the rounds recently after a discussion board Tieba fired up churr amidst netizens of doing less rather than more, being contented with the simple things in life and taking the fourth dimension to unwind after each day.
Some advocates suggest taking a laissez faire arroyo towards coin and career in eschewing fabric wealth and possession, while others say the movement is more accurately a call for moderation in a order of excesses.
The tang ping idea gained huge momentum across Chinese social media platforms Weibo, Internet forum Douban and more than.
But the subject just as quickly caught the attention of authorities, who shut it down correct away. Online discussion groups, some with up to 200,000 members, were censored, and Chinese media almost uniformly urged immature people to ditch the idea.
An editorial in the Global Times alleged: "People's republic of china is at ane of the most important stages of its long road to national rejuvenation. Young people are the hope of this land, and neither their personal state of affairs nor the situation of this country will allow them to collectively 'lie flat'."
That curiously potent pushback past the Chinese establishment suggests some level of deep-seated business organization, every bit if tang ping is some sort of a dangerous argument that must be put out. This seems unwarranted.
And so again polls advise these attitudes are hardening. Between 28 May and 3 Jun, Weibo conducted a survey of 241,000 participants that institute 61 per cent agreed the "lying apartment" mindset resonated with them.
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But this psyche is not new. V years agone, Prc's People Daily ran a story about the starting time post-1990s generation grouping of young men who went on to get monks that went viral on WeChat in 2017.
These "Buddha-like youngsters" claimed to have "seen through the vanity of life" and became nonchalant towards life and livelihood as a consequence.
A PUSHBACK AGAINST 996
Observers aspect the resurgence of tang ping, this yearning for the simple life, to several socio-economic reasons. These include China's gruelling 996 piece of work civilization where caustic work competition at work, pressures to conform with an old narrative and keeping up with familial expectations have taken a toll on young working adults.
At the middle of information technology is the gap between aspirations and reality. Equally a 35-yr-old Chinese woman, married with no children, told the South China Morning Post: "More working class similar u.s.a. have to work from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week, but still can't beget a downwardly payment [on a flat] or even the toll of having a kid."
Paired with the disruption wrought by COVID-19, China'south slowing economy and rise costs of living, Chinese youths have bought into the myth that success and happiness tin can be accomplished with sufficient diligence yet find themselves having to run faster on the treadmill of life only to keep afloat.
When stresses overwhelm, tang ping can seem to exist a reaction to the logical outcomes of a winner-takes-all social club.
WIDER IMPLICATIONS
This retreat from the traditional markers of success has wider implications for China moving forward. Chinese millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, number more than 350 meg. That's more than the entire population of the US.
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But perhaps there is more meets the middle. There are ii ways of looking at tang ping.
The beginning is that with China's rise, Chinese parents may have accomplished much of the criteria for material success.
This provides space for their children to pursue their passions and define success on their own terms, which may explicate why netizens describe this miracle as a spiritual movement.
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From this perspective, information technology is a transcendental philosophy leading ane to opt out of the rat race and finding meaning in new, not-conventional endeavours that could lift society to new heights in sports, the arts and more than.
The second interpretation is a defeatist one, where Chinese millennials have decided to bank check out because they cannot catch upward. Tired and defeated, they've figured that since they tin can't win, they might as well not even attempt, and should only lay back and enjoy themselves.
This argument that such attitudes smacks of entitlement seem to be the one most Chinese media commentators agree. They fright this movement is not good news for President Xi. His ambition of achieving the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation rests on the Chinese workforce condign even more than capable, productive and innovative.
There's a common proverb that China needs to get rich earlier it gets old. Mainland china's rapidly greying population is its gravest domestic challenge. More than 200 million today are over 65 years of age and by 2049, a number that will more than double.
Meanwhile, the number of newborns in Cathay in 2022 have come down to 12 million from 14.65 one thousand thousand in 2019. With the fertility rate of women of childbearing age at a relatively low level of ane.3, China needs every young person to be productive in more ways than one.
The Chinese establishment probably feels its youths cannot beget to let upward in the confront of a brewing United states-China competition.
HEEDING THE CRIES
It is a pity that authorities see tang ping as a sort of counter-culture that needs putting downwards rather than a first sign of an enlightened approach that values work-life balance, mental wellness, and different pathways to success.
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It may well spell a necessarily different approach to defining the ideal life for the adjacent generation of youths in China, at a turning point for the country when Mainland china'southward growth over the long term will irksome.
Instead of stemming such views, Chinese leaders should heed this cry as a basis-up telephone call from its young people speaking upward on how they want to live their lives.
By addressing these concerns directly, and not sweeping information technology nether the carpet, Chinese leaders could signal to their people these worries of being left behind accept been heard.
And in China'south efforts towards national rejuvenation, this could spell an alternative manner for Chinese leaders to inspire the next generation of millennials to stand up and keep fighting. Information technology could well become the engine in Red china's next phase of development.
Dr William Wan is General Secretarial assistant of the Singapore Kindness Motility.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-china-authorities-fear-wanting-chill-could-fire-next-youth-revolution-275841
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