Why China’s gloomy millennials have got the authorities worried
Some young people are embracing an ironic, defeatist attitude on social media, faced with the relentless pressure to succeed, prompting state media to tell them to buck up
Chinese millennials with a dim view of their career and marriage prospects can wallow in despair with a range of teas such as “achieved-absolutely-nothing black tea”, and “my-ex’s-life-is-better-than-mine fruit tea”.
While the drink names at the Sung chain of tea stalls are tongue-in-cheek, the sentiment they reflect is serious – a significant number of young Chinese with high expectations have become discouraged and embrace an attitude known on social media as “sang”, after a Chinese character associated with the word “funeral” that describes being dispirited.
“Sang” culture, which revels in often ironic defeatism, is fuelled by internet celebrities, through music and the popularity of certain mobile games and TV shows, as well as sad faced emojis and pessimistic slogans.
It is a reaction to cutthroat competition for good jobs in an economy that is not as robust as it was a few years ago and when home ownership – long seen as a near requirement for marriage in China – is increasingly unattainable in major cities as flat prices have soared.
“I wanted to fight for socialism today, but the weather is so freaking cold that I’m only able to lay on the bed to play on my mobile phone,” 27 year-old Zhao Zengliang, a “sang” internet personality, wrote in one post. “It would be great if I could just wake up to retirement tomorrow,” she said in another.
Such ironic humour is lost on China’s ruling Communist Party.
Sung Tea was called out in August for peddling “mental opium” by the Communist Party’s official the People’s Daily, which described sang culture in an editorial as “an extreme, pessimistic and hopeless attitude that’s worth our concern and discussion”.