The Chinese Lie Flat Movement

Capitalist consumer culture is taking its toll on workers around the world. 

Take China and its 996 work ethic. 9 am to 9 pm six days a week. 

That is what it takes for young people to get ahead in the competitive economy of a country looking to be number one. 

Fed up Chinese workers choose to do what is called "lie flat" instead, doing more like a 933, and living in a simple way that has become both a social protest movement and a lifestyle. 

An unrepentant, unambitious Luo Huazhong started it in 2021 with a post on social media. 

In it he spoke of his low-key, minimalist lifestyle. It struck a chord with a generation that is chronically overworked and still struggling to afford marriage or buy a house.

He called it Tang Ping, or Lie Flat – a lifestyle choice where one rejects the societal pressures to buckle down and do the hard work required by climbing the career ladder, and acquiring the trappings of a middle class life.

In response to the pressure and diminishing returns, Luo chose to lower his expectations, and become indifferent to normal aspirational desires. 

He took the red pill, and didn't look back. 

At 26 he quit his factory job - it made him feel empty. Then he moved to a small town, spending his time reading philosophy, and surviving by doing odd jobs. 

He makes around US$60 a month, and eats two meals a day. But now he actually has a life that he likes.

Lying flat has been described by supporters as "a harmless choice to strive for nothing more than what is essential

for survival". 

"Of course, I know that if I were to join a corporate design firm, I would very likely make more money and be able to afford more tasty food and better accommodation. But I would only sleep three hours a day and have no time to enjoy life. Now my simple bowls of noodles taste good and my bed is soft enough. I see no reason to try harder." - Li

But the Chinese choosing to lie flat are taking flack from the mainstream just like anyone does that doesn't buy into the capitalist consumer model.

The government and the bosses do not approve, of course. 

"What are you - lazy?" 

"It's shameful", they say.

But what can they do?

You can't march freedom-loving citizens at gunpoint into the factory churning out worker/consumer drones.

That is the beauty of this movement. 

Nothing works without the workers of the world. If we withdraw our services, everything goes caput. 

The power is ours. We do not have to comply. They need us, we don't need them.

If you live in a society that punishes active resistance, and we all do now, then passive resistance is the tactic of choice.

Tang ping ups the ante and elevates the general strike to a lifestyle. 

People everywhere want less grunt work and exploitation, less stuff even, and a more blissful, rewarding, authentic life. 

They don't want to sacrifice their best years to support an increasingly losing venture regardless of how hard you work.

Tang ping is a cat on a leash falling down and refusing to move - there is not much that anyone can do about it. You can take it for a walk if you like, but you will have to drag that cat down the sidewalk.

Thing is, the cat isn't going to do anything until you release it from its bondage. Everything just wants to be free, and if you can't provide that, we will find a way of providing it for ourselves, regardless of where we live, and what our nationality is.

The Not Buying Anything blog approves of this movement. In fact, we are in full supine support of our Chinese simple living brothers and sisters. 

In solidarity, I lie flat. Let us exit the matrix together.

"I 'lie flat' because this is the way my life is meant to be. If people think I'm a loser, then so be it." - Zhang