China’s “Lying Flat” Movement - and the Similar Stories in America
What’s the purpose of working? Now, hear me out. I know it may sound like a silly question, but the answer to the question can be surprisingly elusive and is fundamental to thinking about today’s topic.
For most people, the answer will be some form of “So I can survive and provide for myself and anybody dependent on me.” Sure, there are lots of other reasons to go to work for things you believe - to contribute to something greater, be a part of your community, or find personal fulfillment. But very few people would go to their jobs, no matter how fulfilling, were it not to receive the pay necessary to meet their other goals and necessities. Tellingly, when we contribute our efforts to something without receiving pay in return, we don’t call it work - we call it volunteering, charity, mutual aid, etc.
This framework is essential to understand the rise of China’s Tang Ping - or “lying flat” - movement. Please forgive me for inevitably butchering the pronunciation of any Chinese words, by the way. I do my best to learn reasonably correct pronunciations but I’m sure anybody who speaks Chinese will be cringing at my attempts. Lying Flat is the term for a form of social protest that’s grown in attention over the last couple of months. The movement in this form is credited to Luo Huazhong, who at 31 wrote a blog post entitled “Laying Flat is Justice”. Tired of the responsibilities of work culture, he quit his job as a factory worker and moved to a remote location where he could live in a small and affordable flat for very little money. Working odd jobs and taking the rough equivalent of 60 US Dollars from his savings every month, he’s able to make enough money to survive and eat two meals a day.
Luo opens his blog post simply, by saying “I have been chilling. I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with it.” The original post has since been taken down, with re-posts additionally being censored. Between the post being difficult to find and my inability to read or speak Chinese, I can’t guarantee complete accuracy but only that I’ll do my best to represent what’s being said.
It’s necessary that we understand fully the context in which this movement is being adopted. Many of China’s largest companies openly espouse what’s referred to as a 9-9-6 schedule, which refers to working from 9am to 9pm six days a week. Technically, 44 hours a week is supposed to be the maximum that workers can be required to work, with 36 hours of overtime a month. So how do you arrive at a schedule where workers are putting in 72 hours a week, many of them unpaid? There’s enormous social pressure to continue working long past the official end of business, with some reporting that those who don’t are punished or given poor performance reviews and passed up for advancement.
As an outsider to the situation, I always like to be cautious about believing reported events blindly or thinking I’m too familiar with the situation. I’m going to input some quotes from the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding. As always, you’ll find my references in the description so don’t just take my opinion for granted. Ma himself is quoted as saying that the intense working schedule is “a huge blessing that many companies and employees don’t have the opportunity to have.” He would go on to say “If you join Alibaba, you should get ready to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why do you come to Alibaba? We don’t need those who comfortably work 8 hours.”
Zhou Hongyi, chief executive of Qihoo 360, weighed in similarly. “I’ll call you my big uncle if any of you seated here can say you truly balance family and work.” In other words, even the chief executive of the company would consider you a superlative person if you were able to maintain a balance between work and life. His advice for dealing with the exhausting work culture? Companies should make employees feel like they are working for themselves and are shareholders in the company, so that they feel the time put in is more of an investment.
But for all that extra time put in, the expected gains are not always there. Many young workers in China feel that they are working at a rate which negatively affects their health, yet they are still not in a stable financial place. There are growing fears that they may be the first generation to not be better off than their parents before them, and increasingly they are feeling the squeeze of rising housing costs despite the working hours expected of them.
On top of this, there are other societal pressures facing young Chinese workers currently. There is a very large age imbalance where older workers make up much of the workforce, and in coming decades will be retiring in large numbers. The result will be a drastically smaller workforce that will be expected not only to maintain productivity, but also care for their elders in retirement. There is also heavy nationalistic pressure not only to work for the good of the country, but to earn money and consume Chinese-made goods to keep the economy strong.
In a sense, if you find yourself in this position of increasing expectations and burden to maintain unrealistic schedules but still lacking financial resources you need to be stable and independent, it’s only natural to question the system you’re in and look for answers outside of it. For some number of young Chinese workers, Lying Flat is the antidote.
In more concrete terms, what are some of the priorities that those Lying Flat maintain? It’s not meant to be a philosophy of total inactivity, but rather prioritizing what is essential and necessary for you to live your life. Rather than owning a home, many will look to rent an affordable room where they can cover their costs with little effort. It’s avoiding unnecessary expenditures from owning a home or car, to avoiding unnecessary personal habits and indulgences. Many are also avoiding marriage and children as these add extra costs and responsibilities. In essence, doing what one must in order to survive and not wanting for material possessions or expenses beyond this.
You may have recognized this sounds familiar to some older philosophies, in particular Cynicism as well as some mildly ascetic interpretations of eastern philosophies. Luo himself says that the philosophy is calling to mind Diogenes the Cynic. Diogenes is known for living simply inside a barrel or pot near the town’s marketplace, owning few if any possessions, adapting himself to his natural environment and temperatures, and associating with wild dogs whom he felt were closer to the right way of living and accepting the gifts of the gods than the humans he shared the city with.
In one story, Alexander the Great stopped to visit with Diogenes and asked if he could do anything for him, to which Diogenes replied that Alexander could stop blocking his sunlight. In another, Diogenes witnessed a child drinking water with his bare hands, and thereafter destroyed his cup which was one of his few possessions.
Obviously, the Chinese youths involved in the Laying Flat movement are not living quite as extreme as Diogenes - they have modern homes and some luxuries. Rather, it’s about opting out of a system which they feel disfavors them and requires an extraordinary toll on their bodies and minds in return for a socially accepted lifestyle which they still are not fully able to afford. So, choosing to let go of personal luxuries in exchange for a lifestyle which is easier and less stressful is seen by some as a very advantageous trade-off.
A song by Zhang Xinmin entitled tangping shi zhengdao, or “lying down is the right way”, underscores many of these points. It contains lines such as “lying down, you truly can’t be cut down. Competition’s inward spiral is a waste of energy, that wage slaves make for themselves,” and “buy now, pay later is fine at first but you have to work twice as hard when it’s time to repay/ lying down is the magic weapon.” I should note that I’m relying on translations provided in comments on the video as well as articles written about the song, but I encourage you to check out the link to the video itself.
Shortly after Zhang released the video on Chinese social media services, it was taken down and blocked from re-upload. It was only after this that the song was uploaded on YouTube. This underscores a common point with Tangping - it’s considered disgraceful and potentially dangerous by not only the Chinese government, but also large corporations and businessmen. Discussion of tangping is blocked on many forms of Chinese media, as well as the sale of merchandise with images or phrases associated with the practice.
To those who would consider the practice disgraceful, Luo has this to say: “I have the right to choose a slow lifestyle. I didn’t do anything destructive to society. Do we have to work 12 hours a day in a sweatshop, and is that justice?”
When I first read about this, the movement of course caught my attention. But as much as I’ve read about it, there’s something about it that feels very disingenuous, possibly even hypocritical to me; that being that the same situation is happening in America, and possibly elsewhere, but doesn’t receive nearly the same amount of attention.
If you live in the United States and you’ve gone out in public recently, you might have noticed a change in staffing in our own country. I’ve seen it myself. Fast food locations with the lobby closed because only a single employee showed up to work and can only man the drive-thru. Small pharmacies and general stores with no one manning the counter while the only available employee is busy with stocking, a small note at the counter indicating to “yell if you need help.” Entire store staff quitting on the same day. Limited menus, shortened hours, less seating.
The US is experiencing its own labor shortage, although some hesitate to use that term because it’s not a raw shortage but rather a change in attitudes and priorities. In fact, there’s a trendy name for it right now: The Great Resignation. More people are quitting their jobs than ever, and surveys indicate it’s not just about the money any more. People are increasingly seeking jobs that offer them flexibility, work-life balance, and remote work options. They’re prioritizing shorter commutes and more time at home and with family.
Although some will claim that there’s a single culprit of this change, the reality is that there are likely many factors, some of which may have been building up over decades to come to a head during the pandemic. Many of the jobs suffering the worst labor gaps are low paid jobs where wages have continually declined in relation to productivity and where workers feel disrespected by employers and the public.
While the US lacks the recognition of a more formalized movement, similar philosophies have been growing for years. Consider, for instance, the FI/RE movement - an acronym meaning “Financial Independence, Retire Early”. The FIRE movement encourages young people to aggressively save money and reduce debts and overhead costs so they can retire earlier with plenty of money in the bank. Adherents are encouraged to find a way to save as much as 50-75% of their income so they can retire in their 30s and 40s. Of course, the obvious criticism with this movement is that this requires an income level far above the norm, or a very unusual living situation where many of your needs are taken care of at a low cost, or more likely both.
Another growing movement in the US with similar goals involves people seeking alternative forms of housing, usually mobile. To some extent this is seen in the tiny house movement, but to a larger extent with mobile living in the form of vans, RVs, and even conversions of other vehicles such as school busses. Of course this still requires an initial investment up front, but is a method of avoiding some traditional financial restraints. For instance, although you will need to find a place to park that might involve some type of lot rent or site fee, this is typically a much less burdensome process than what’s required to rent an apartment or enter a mortgage. Adherents commonly do freelance, remote or gig work or support themselves with other endeavors such as art and handmade products which they sell. There’s also a significant overlap with a group referred to as digital nomads, who work remotely and take advantage of the ability to travel while they do so and work from various locations.
We can make a case, then, for how these movements have significant overlap with the goals of the Lying Flat movement. They involve a questioning of fundamental assumptions about what one needs to live, seeking alternative solutions, and pursuing a life where one works as necessary to live rather than living for their work - if you’ll excuse my use of cliche.
More recently, there’s a growing aesthetic trend referred to as “cottagecore” which I believe is similarly tied to attempts to redefine need fulfillment, meaning and a person’s relation to work. In Cottagecore, ideals are represented which many feel are increasingly out of reach of many of the working class. Home ownership, even a relatively modest home. Work which is enjoyable and directly rewarding, such as gardening and foraging. Escape from urbanization and industrialization. I don’t think it’s any stretch, then, to think that a growing interest in Cottagecore and similar aesthetic ideals might indicate a form of yearning for these very principles of living a life not based on productivity.
In response to China’s Lying Flat movement, and towards the growing numbers of Americans leaving work or embracing alternative work, there is an element of bias based on personal wealth accumulation. For instance, individuals who follow the FI/RE system or grow their own business and sell it young are often praised as shrewd businesspeople. Those who instead choose a traditionally lower standard of living so that they can support themselves outside of the traditional workforce are considered lazy and detrimental to society. Similarly, one Chinese state newspaper warned against “lying flat before getting rich.”
The implication inherent to these premises is that work is something one does not only for their own benefit, but as a matter of responsibility one owes to the public and to their country. To opt out and be lazy, then, is earned by those who have made their fortunes but not those who are willing to accept fewer luxuries to support themselves.
It’s only natural that people should ask themselves under what auspice this work is owed. People are capable of rational self-interest and determination in activities that benefit them and act accordingly. If, then, the larger constructs of society have need for more participation in the workforce, there seems a simple but potentially painful solution; understand the wants and needs of the people, and offer them those things in exchange for their work.
That’s all for today. Leave me your comments on China’s Lying Flat movement and the move towards similar tendencies in American culture. If you’re new to the channel and enjoyed this video, you might like to check out the playlist of all my video-essay type content, or the playlist centered around vaguely philosophical topics such as this. Until next time, it’s been a pleasure as always. Thank you.
