The View | How China’s ‘lying flat’ generation is driving the country towards common prosperity

Some dismiss them as lazy, but China’s ‘lying flat’ youths are doing their share for society by drawing attention to the country’s growing wealth inequality

The refusal to work long hours for a low wage or strive for empty success should not be criticised, but used to fuel the national drive for common prosperity

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A young worker takes a break in Beijing, China, on August 25, 2021. A Stanford study found that China ranks low globally for social mobility. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:30am, 9 Feb 2022

The Lunar New Year period can be a time of immense pressure, when young people are expected to show off their accrued status and wealth to friends and family. Some, however, are refusing to bow to this pressure by instead “lying flat”.

Although at its most extreme, lying flat may lead to NEET (not in education, employment or training) status or even hikikomori (acute social withdrawal), these concepts should not be conflated. Unlike NEETs, “lying-flatters” may be gainfully employed. Unlike hikikomori, they may be socially integrated.

Lying flat is the type of social phenomenon that could only arise in an achievement-oriented East Asian society. In the affluent West, particularly in welfare states like Canada and Australia, many young people choose lifestyles which are less demanding.

Still, lying flat is a relative concept. A highly capable individual with the potential to become a tech titan may choose to lie flat by taking a less ambitious yet perfectly respectable job. Lying flat should not be seen as individual indolence, but as a collective reaction to a hyper-competitive “involuted” society.

Some lying flat may be involuntary, given graduates’ tough job prospects. In the fourth quarter of last year, for example, hiring demand for new graduates declined by 11 per cent while the number of applicants increased by 38 per cent.

China’s “Gilded Age” of unlimited wealth creation may be coming to an end. Amid retrenchments in private education and the tech sector, graduates are foregoing high-paid private-sector careers in favour of government jobs.

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.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The View | How China’s ‘lying flat’ generation is driving the country towards common prosperity

The View | How China’s ‘lying flat’ generation is driving the country towards common prosperity