#TangPing (“lying flat”)
#TangPing (“lying flat”)
China’s new ‘tang ping’ trend aims to highlight pressures of work culture (from BBC)
Young people in China exhausted by a culture of hard work with seemingly little reward are highlighting the need for a lifestyle change by “lying flat”.
The new trend, known as “tang ping”, is described as an antidote to society’s pressures to find jobs and perform well while working long shifts.
China has a shrinking labour market and young people often work more hours.
The term “tang ping” is believed to have originated in a post on a popular Chinese social media site.
“Lying flat is my wise movement,” a user wrote in a since-deleted post on the discussion forum Tieba, adding: “Only by lying down can humans become the measure of all things.”
The comments were later discussed on Sina Weibo, another popular Chinese microblogging site, and the term soon became a buzzword.
The idea behind “tang ping” – not overworking, being content with more attainable achievements and allowing time to unwind – has been praised by many and inspired numerous memes. It has been described as a spiritual movement.
And if this really becomes a movement how long before Xi does something about it?
Thinking belief in this will result in drastic lowering of a person’s social credit score, which can have severe negative results.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/us/politics/senate-china-semiconductors.html?smid=tw-share
Sandwichman:
When I was in the plants in Tianjin and Shantou, their lunch period was a combination a served lunch and a rest period allowing them to nap. We would retire to a dining area where the cook would make something special (Chinese food) for lunch. I cannot complain about the food at all. It was good.
The hours they worked were far longer than in the US. However they did have 2 meals a day and a snack at night if Overtime was worked, a ride to and from the plant, and a nurse or doctor on staff. So much for labor overhead.
If the US wishes to compete, pass Single Payer and take that cost away from businesses.
This isn’t just a Chinese phenomenon, this is worldwide. We are reassessing what it means to work and is a paycheck worth the struggles to get it. Since 1965 the economy has been somewhat in decline with income inequality increasing exponentially after every recession. Viva la revolution
“They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work”, was the motto of the old USSR. US workers have been working hard and are increasingly productive, but, for most, income has been flat. We’ll probably be seeing more lying down in the future, despite the Stalinist Republican policy “work or starve”. Even under Stalin, there was a way around it.