![]() It is the opposite of what China’s leaders have asked of their people. To lie flat means to forgo marriage, not have children, stay unemployed and eschew material wants such as a house or a car. “After working for so long, I just felt numb, like a machine,” Mr. ![]() An official counternarrative has also emerged, encouraging young people to work hard for the sake of the country’s future. Mentions of “lying flat” - tangping, as it’s known in Mandarin - are heavily restricted on the Chinese internet. Luo’s blog post was removed by censors, who saw it as an affront to Beijing’s economic ambitions. They are now defying the country’s long-held prosperity narrative by refusing to participate in it. But with employees working longer hours and housing prices rising faster than incomes, many young Chinese fear they will be the first generation not to do better than their parents. ![]() ![]() The country’s authoritarianism was seen as a fair trade-off as millions were lifted out of poverty. “Lying flat” went viral and has since become a broader statement about Chinese society.Ī generation ago, the route to success in China was to work hard, get married and have children. Before long, the post was being celebrated by Chinese millennials as an anti-consumerist manifesto. He titled his post “Lying Flat Is Justice,” attaching a photo of himself lying on his bed in a dark room with the curtains drawn. “I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong.” Luo, 31, wrote in a blog post in April, describing his way of life. ![]() He called his new lifestyle “lying flat.” 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. Five years ago, Luo Huazhong discovered that he enjoyed doing nothing. ![]()
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