“After considering those factors, we may find the seemingly contradicting views of youngsters on Bilibili not contradicting at all,” wrote Xi. In addition, China’s spending on education and healthcare as a share of GDP is also lower than countries with a similar level of development, resulting in low quality and high prices for citizens. Xi pointed at China’s “extremely low” labor income as a percentage of GDP, which remains at around 40% in recent years compared to around 60% to 70% in developed countries. “Of course, not everyone can choose to lie down, but the society needs to give people the option to progress or opt out of life,” he told Epoch Story. Luo said he was not surprised by the overnight popularity of lying flat, or the rejection of hustle culture, which in China is dubbed ” 996,” or working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. “I’d like to understand what people in a foreign country think about, I care more about their status as human beings,” he said. In an interview, he told Epoch Story, a social affairs-focused account on messaging app WeChat, that he spends most of his time swimming and reading books, including those about American society. He makes money through odd jobs, which fittingly also involve lying flat-one of his side hustles includes being an extra in movies, in which he sometimes plays a dead body.
Luo Huazhong, the author of the lying flat post, said in the thread that he only eats two meals a day, usually eggs, rice, and noodles, spending only around 200 yuan ($31) each month. “The essence of lying flat is the dismantling of the Party’s control of people,” a young Chinese student in the US told Quartz. Moreover, while the Party is good at using its security apparatus to suppress protests, the very passivity of lying flat make the idea much harder for the regime to counter.
A generation that no longer wants to enter an endless rat race could slow consumption and therefore economic growth, undermining the key moral justification for one-party rule. But it is the deep discontent expressed behind the thinking that has Beijing worried. Of course, the lying flat trend has yet to, or probably never will become an organized political movement. “So that is why the movement was quickly censored or publicly criticized to mitigate its popularity.”
That concern is heightened given the 100th anniversary of the Party in July. “The fear is such trends, after gaining online traction can mobilize public support and quickly turn into protest movements,” said Valarie Tan, an analyst at German think tank Merics whose research focuses on Chinese elites and societal and media debates. Lifestyle philosophies based on rejecting ambition, and being a cog in China’s capitalist machine have been spreading in recent years, and “lying flat” is the latest culmination of such trends, explained Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing.
For many, this is almost the only way in an authoritarian country to fight against the growing pressures from long work hours, skyrocketing housing prices, and the ever higher cost of raising children. The concept advocates an almost monastic outlook, including not getting married, not having children, not having a job, not owning property, and consuming as little as possible. But the government is now facing a new form of resistance that may be a little harder to put down-“ Tang Ping” (躺平) or lying flat, a passive approach to life that subtly thwarts the government’s desire to foster a hardworking and productive populace. During its seven decades of ruling in China, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly skilled at crushing street protests such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstrations.
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