Los Young people in China are increasingly flocking to temples. According to data published by the Qunar travel platform, the number of visitors to religious sites increased by 367% in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2022.
Much of it is due to the post-pandemic and the abolition of the zero Covid policy, but the millennials and Generation Z are also part of a generation facing record levels of unemployment. In a bleak economy, many hope for divine intervention, describes The Guardian.
However, it is not the first symptom of the problem in Chinese society. In April last year, a philosophy called Lying flatism or “to lie down means justice” (en chino, lying flat is justice).
It’s about a movement against consumerism in which individuals do not pursue personal goalsThey turn down job offers, disengage from romantic relationships, refuse to buy a house or a car, and give up on marriage and children.
«Independence in resignation»
The manifesto was published on the social network by a user who had been unemployed for two years. As he argued, it is possible to find independence in resignation. “I can be like Diogenes, who sleeps in his own barrel basking in the sun,” he said in the since-deleted post.
Instead of working hard to fight for a better life, adherents just want to focus on their feelingss and live in their current moments, explains a study in BMC Psychology. The key: These young people believe that their personal efforts are no longer effective in improving their lives due to structural and social factors, PsyPost explains.
“Do you want me to get up? That is not possible in this life, “says the illustration that has been circulating since 2021 on Chinese social networks.
This is not the first time that young people have rebelled against the culture of excessive work. In 2019, he recounts Brookingsthousands of tech employees launched an online campaign called “996.ICU”, i.e. a combination of “996 culture” (working 9am to 9pm 6 days a week) and “intensive care unit” which refers to cases of those who had to seek emergency medical treatment for work-related health crises.
Traditional values are still very important in China, such as owning a house and having children. But young people in their 20s and 30s believe they will never be able to achieve these goals.For example, those who are only children (because of China’s previous one-child policy) consider that they will also have to care for their elderly parents on their own.
As the BBC points out, the phenomenon has a name and specific justifications in China, but it is not exclusive to that territory. In both the United States and Europe, millions of workers are reported to be retiring, quitting, or refusing to take jobs they find unrewarding.
It so happens that, Brookings argues, it has become virtually impossible to defend one’s own rights and interests, to assert personal needs and desires over the grandiose ambitions of the Nation. “Lying flat” is a response to this, “passive and desperate”.