As a high schooler growing up in a small town in eastern China, Li Xiaoming dreamed of moving to a big city where he could have a better life.
Now 24, Li just wants to take a rest.
Across the country, young people like Li who requested to be referred to by that pseudonym because he fears career and political repercussions for his views are getting tired of the fierce competition for college and jobs, and the relentless rat race once they get hired.
They’re now embracing a new philosophy they’ve called “tang ping,” or “lying flat.”
The phrase apparently traces its origins to a post earlier this year in an online forum run by the Chinese search giant Baidu. The author of that now-deleted post suggested that instead of working one’s entire life chasing after an apartment and traditional family values, people should pursue a simple life.
In other words, just “lie flat.”
Talk of “lying flat” has spread rapidly through China as young people contend with intense competition for the most attractive jobs, especially in tech and other white collar fields. As the country cracks down on private enterprise, meanwhile, the public has grown wary of what many see as a grueling work culture. Commonplace at many tech firms and startups are demands for people to work nearly double or more the number of hours in a typical work week.
Interest in “lying flat” has exploded on social media and attracted the interest of censors, who in some cases have restricted the use of the term. Several state media outlets have also pushed back against the conversation, suggesting that young people should strive to work hard instead.
This type of phenomenon, though, isn’t limited to China. Across East Asia, young people say they’ve become exhausted by the prospect of working hard for seemingly little reward.
In South Korea, young people are giving up on marriage and home ownership. In Japan, they are so pessimistic about the country’s future that they are eschewing material possessions.
“Young people are very burnt out,” said Lim Woon-taek, a professor of sociology at Keimyung University in South Korea. “They don’t know why they have to work so hard.”
As more young people grow frustrated with relentless pressure, they say they want to and in some cases are giving up conventional rites of passage, such as getting married or having children.
Where the young people just want to lie flat
Li spent every day in high school studying. On his college entrance exam, his score placed him in the top 0.37% among all high school seniors in Shandong province. He’s studying for his master’s degree at one of the top three law schools in China, and was hoping to get a job at a prestigious international law firm based in Beijing.
But when he applied for graduate jobs and internships in March, he got rejected from more than 20 international law firms in China. Instead, he settled for a trainee position at a domestic law firm.
“The competition between me and other interns was so intense,” said Li. “When I see those students who are still trying to go to prestigious international law firms, I feel exhausted and unwilling to contend with them anymore.”
The “tang ping” lifestyle has started to resonate with him, he said. Tired of trying to get to the top, Li has decided to “lie flat” by doing the bare minimum at his internship.
“Many people who were better than me were working harder than me, so I felt anxious,” he said. “‘Tang ping’ is … contending with the status quo, not being ambitious, not working so hard.”
Supporters of the phrase have also developed a philosophy that extends beyond the initial Baidu post. In one group on the social platform Douban, someone posted a manifesto describing the characteristics of the “tang ping” lifestyle.
“I will not marry, buy a house or have children, I will not buy a bag or wear a watch,” the “lying flat manifesto” read. “I will slack off at work … I am a blunt sword to boycott consumerism.”
That group was eventually banned this spring, after attracting thousands of participants. A hashtag for the term was also censored on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
The pressures facing young people in China are high. A record 9.09 million students graduated from university or college this year, according to data from China’s Ministry of Education.
Even after finding jobs, many workers have bemoaned intense work schedules, especially at major tech firms. The culture, known as “996,” refers to working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. The excessive work culture was blasted by China’s top court on Thursday. It called out companies across a range of industries it said violated labor rules, including an unnamed courier firm that told employees to work 996 hours.
A lot of young people are working for such companies, according to Terence Chong, an associate professor of economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
“If you cannot see any hope, then you want to ‘tang ping.’TERENCE CHONG, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AT THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
“They compete with each other,” he said. So even if not everyone wants to work such hours, they may feel compelled to do so to keep up.
Those stresses aren’t limited to the tech sector. Tony Tang a 36-year-old university professor in Guangdong said he was tired from working 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“I think I’m too overworked,” said Tang, who requested to be referred to by the pseudonym Tony Tang because he was afraid of facing repercussions for his views. “They just regard working hard as one kind of things for Chinese people to do.”
The rising cost of housing is adding to the pressure. As measured by square meter, the average cost of a unit in a residential building in Beijing more than doubled in the six years to 2019, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Over the same period, the average annual disposable income in the city increased 66%.
“No matter how hard they work, it is very difficult to buy a house,” said Chong of CUHK. “In a society where you see some hope there, if you work hard, then you can … buy a house and so on, then you can work hard. But the thing is if you cannot see any hope, then you want to ‘tang ping.'”
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