China's censors want to purge the internet of millennial angst
China wants kids to stay away from BoJack Horseman and sang culture
Despairing over the price of apartments or avocado toast isn't just for millennials in the US. In China, millennial angst has helped form an entire sub-culture of dejected 20-somethings with a knack for cynical, self-deprecating humor. But the country’s censors aren't finding it funny.
It loosely translates to funeral or mourning, but it can also mean hopeless or dispirited. Too lazy to pick up dirty laundry from the floor? You're sang. Spend 12 hours a day in an office for a salary that barely covers rent? Also sang. And if you outright refuse to participate in China's frantic social competition? Definitely sang.
But the trend didn't please Chinese government mouthpieces, which have called the sang movement “spiritual opium“. (Is sofa is the new opium of the masses?)
BoJack Horseman, a sad-com about a once-famous actor full of self-loathing, also got the boot. The show was removed from one of China's most popular streaming sites in 2017.