'lying flat') is a Chinese slang neologism that describes a personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishing returns.
Novelist Liao Zenghu described "lying flat" as a passive-aggressive resistance movement,[5] and The New York Times called it part of a nascent Chinese counterculture.
[7][8][9] The National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, an institution affiliated with the Education Ministry of China, listed the word as one of the 10 most popular memes for 2021 in the Chinese Internet.
[17] The movement began in April 2021 with a post by Luo Huazhong (username "Kind-Hearted Traveler") on the internet forum Baidu Tieba, in which he discussed his reasons for living a low-key, minimalist lifestyle.
He then cycled 2,100 km (1,300 mi) from Sichuan to Tibet, and now back in his home town Jiande in eastern Zhejiang Province, spends his time reading philosophy, and gets by doing a few odd jobs and taking US$60 a month from his savings.
[19] In April 2021, an incident where a truck driver committed suicide due to fines and vehicle impoundment sparked widespread discussions on the internet about the hardships of life at the grassroots level.
This stands in stark contrast to the official emphasis on "poverty alleviation success" and the narrative of achieving a "moderately prosperous society," highlighting the lack of significant improvement, and even decline, in labor conditions amidst the rapid pace of social development.
However, some analysts believe that many young people today face challenges such as long working hours, stagnant wages, difficulties in homeownership, mental and physical exhaustion, and heavy burdens of elderly care, leading to a widespread decline in willingness to marry and have children.
[30][31] In May, a video clip of CCTV news commentator Bai Yansong criticizing the low-key mindset circulated on the popular video-sharing website Bilibili,[11] and had attracted thousands of mockeries and slurs on the danmu commentaries in response.
"[34] An October article by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, published in the Communist Party journal Qiushi, called for "avoiding 'involution' [nei juan] and 'lying flat'".
Beijing's party-affiliated Guangming Daily newspaper added that tang ping should not be discounted without reflection—if China wants to cultivate diligence in the young generation, it should first try to improve their quality of life.
[44] On August 3, 2021, former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden posted on Twitter, sharing the song "Lying Flat is King", and encouraged young people to "never forget that you are not alone: the exploitation of the emerging generation is a global struggle.
[52] According to BBC, the serial popularity of “Geyou Lying Down” to “Lazy eggs” to “mourning culture” signals the increasing pressure on the younger generation, who grew up under the single-child policy, to work longer hours, abide the social credit system, and show their patriotism.
[53] On June 9, 2021, the British newspaper The Independent identified Lying Flat as an online protest by young people in China, an extension of similar movements around the world that call for rest and recovery rather than busyness.
It highlights economic inequality, limited job opportunities, and a sense of disillusionment with the traditional path of working long hours as factors contributing to the rise of lying flat.
[40][59][60] The phrase "quiet quitting", meaning doing only what one's job demands and nothing more, which became popular in the United States in 2022 primarily due to the evolving landscape of work culture influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
[citation needed] Freeter is a term specifically describing a state in Japan and Japanese culture, which is a person aged 15 to 34 who is unemployed, underemployed, or otherwise lacks full-time paid employment.
The culture is presented in Koenji in Tokyo, where there are second-hand shops and recycled objects, and troquets with low and affordable prices in the region, showing an alternative way of living.