China’s Slacker Youths: Why They Went From 'Lying Flat' To 'Let It Rot' | Insight | Full Episode

[Applause] there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction brewing among the young in china a new phenomenon called bailan meaning let it rot with some 200 000 members on related online forums and growing this movement is a pushback against the competitive rat race in china as china grapples with its zero-covet policy a sluggish economy and nearly 20 percent unemployment among youths could these unmotivated chinese youths jeopardize sitting ping's vision of a china rejuvenation if bailar continues it will have a lot of turbulence in china [Music] so [Music] lee selin works in his uncle's shop in beijing a motor vehicle inspection factory for six days a week 9 am to 5 pm he checks for mechanical faults such as leaks in the fuel system or worn tires and minor repairs like changing oil or filters the high school graduate is sociable and gets along very well with his co-workers but when it comes to the job itself he is indifferent [Music] in this youthful 25 year old the lack of motivation extends to other aspects of his life [Music] is well aware of the social phenomenon bailan to let it rot he admits he has a pylon attitude [Music] in chinese gaming communities in early 2022 it was seen as the spiritual successor of an earlier movement known as tanping or lying flat so to understand bailan we have to look at tan ping a social phenomenon that took china by storm in 2021 here's something that one blogger posted in baidu in april last year the post called on young people who are the engine of the country's growth to opt out of the struggle for workplace success tamping or lying flat promises release from the crush of life where competition is unrelenting this post went viral and state media scrambled to launch a series of rebuttals search functions on tamping on wechat and doban were disabled effectively sunset so why did tamping resonate with chinese youths the idea of tang ping is actually pretty universal in the sense that a lot of young people are tired of the kind of games that society apparently is asking them to engage in and they are not too interested in this kind of com competition you know and uh so they they prefer a different kind of lifestyle the number of graduates you know from universities and you know with college degrees is something like 10 million of course this year is uh quite challenging in the sense that so many graduates from college and jobs are scarce you know the competition is keen so that is why i'm saying that uh uh the idea that i i don't want to engage in this kind of competition i want to tamping okay a lie flat the covert 19 pandemic has dragged into 2022 the chinese authorities were determined to maintain its zero covert policy the economy bore the brunt of the sweeping and repeated lockdowns economists estimated that china was losing 45 billion dollars in gdp per month as major hubs of xinjiang shanghai and beijing closed off one by one a record 10.8 million graduates are expected to join the workforce this year even as youth unemployment stands at 18.4 percent perhaps on the back of this dark economic mood the relatively benign time being degenerated into the more cynical bailan tamping means that i cannot actually move up the ladder i just try to save myself by minimizing my social activity and economic activities by them basically say no to system i will not cooperate i even don't bother to like be listening to you i just try to actually have my own style then i have my own anti-social behavior by lung is even worse than tamping so that's the reason why chinese leadership really worry about this trend for xialin he says he wasn't always like that after finishing high school he had high hopes of finding a good job and making a good living [Music] [Music] foreign foreign stories of young people like celine who are unmotivated and indifferent are not new almost every nation society and generation will have their own fair share of what we call slackers but for china it is also seen as a rejection of the country's economic direction and the authorities are taking notice in may 2022 president xi jinping gave a major speech on the 100th anniversary of the may 4th movement and the focus was squarely on chinese youths the may 4th movement is an important milestone in chinese history it commemorates the student uprising in 1919 against imperialism and marks the spread of communism in his speech c urged a youth to focus on the country and not just on personal goals in every society young people will think older people are actually eating up all kinds of resources laying older people will think young people are lazy you are not contributing to the society but in china this is something slightly different because of it's something already been there for a while people could see that a lot of frustration among use so that's the reason why he particularly mentioned about the importance of youth and also the future [Music] guan isis is a freelance private tutor her hours are leisurely and she teaches no more than two classes per day after that she's off to a public park to indulge in her favorite pastime skateboarding in august 2021 chinese authorities launched a sweeping crackdown on private and online tuition which wiped out an estimated three million jobs private tutors like isis were directly affected as she lost many students and a large chunk of her income but instead of finding a supplementary job isis spends some four to five hours at the skate park each day that would seem unusually laid back for a 29 year old single university graduate living in one of the most expensive cities in china sure over time was a regular occurrence and she could work up to 15 hours a day and see learning foreign foreign same sentiment as aizu thailan is a personal choice and nobody should judge him for this but there are some who are bewildered by the pylon generation's attitude the gen x and boomers who came before them to me by lung it is a shock to me at the older generation of chinese because of who we never imagined that this is some sort of rebellion from younger generation because so what happened in the intervening years between generation x and generation z in china that has led to the rise of bailout youths and their sins of doom and despay [Music] under chairman mao zedong's leadership the turbulent periods of the great leap forward and the cultural revolution negatively impacted the economy from 1950 to 1976 china's gdp never grew by more than 2 percent almost 30 years after establishing the people's republic of china in 1949 the economy was unproductive the gdp per capita income was 165 dollars in 1976. [Music] after mao's death in 1976 tong xiaoping became the paramount leader in 1978. he launched a series of far-reaching market reforms that would transform china from an isolated impoverished state to become the world's second largest economy dung instituted the open door policy which allowed foreign direct investment in china from 1978 to 2013 the economy grew by an average of 9.5 percent a year a pace described by the world bank as the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history things help encourage people to work hard to try to get rich as much as they can so to be the first group of the people to get rich in china that kind of release the energy passion and motivation for a group of the people who have been suppressed during the cultural revolution so they particularly cherish the opportunity it was on the back of that dynamic energy that itself described bookworm jorong as a young adult in that era found his calling and fortune after graduating from university joe taught mathematics in high school for 10 years the turning point came in 1993 [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] to let a few people get rich first open the floodgates of the chinese entrepreneurial drive they can work hard they can actualize their dream especially material dream because before during the cultural revolution and before most majority of the chinese people are really poor [Music] attributes his business success to the vast opportunities available during the tang japan era when there was less [Music] the brick neck speed of growth and expansion of the chinese economy was difficult to sustain and since 2010 the double-digit growth of china's gdp has tapered downwards [Music] from over 10.6 percent in 2010 to around 6 in 2019 and this dropped to 2.3 percent when the pandemic hit in 2020 but even as the chinese economy grew so did inequality china's genie coefficient which measures income distribution is more unequal than most western countries [Music] i would say that the thirst of the open door is very good and the shopping had a lot of reform in china also very good but at that time i would say many people made a mistake they think market economy can solve everything but they ignore social development they ignore social welfare then they develop some anti-social welfare sentiment i think the phenomenon of line threat did not just start from last year or the year before it was there for a while a lot of observers already noticed that social immobility in china is a problem since early 2000s not actually just say in recent two or three years because many chinese suffer from they call it a burden of three mountains the three mountains refer to education healthcare and housing between 2004 and 2013 average housing prices grew 17 per annum but incomes grew just 11 in the same period in top tier city shanghai alone between 2000 and 2010 the price index for shanghai homes soared 121 percent the property bubble really makes the society very much driven by property inflation so many young folk they could not afford to buy a flag because their salary would not actually enable them to afford apartment their education issue they have for children to cultivate they will feel that the tuition fee will be very much substantial for them particularly private tuition fee some people told me that even a staff tutor could actually charge you much more like 800 1 000 singapore dollar it's unbelievably for these sort of people particularly are not earning a decent sale the aging issue is irreversible in china people are getting old so medical costs will increase i'm not quite sure these current generation could actually have for the same money like the parents so they need to have a lot of money for the future then the anxiety level will be very very high [Music] 25 year old wang yandong works in healthcare management in beijing it wasn't his first choice of career as he studied engineering in university um [Music] life in the big city hasn't turned out to be a better roses he's been here for almost five years and feels he's further from his original goals than before and happy to put in the minimal effort foreign foreign [Music] foreign foreign this lackadaisical attitude is a far cry from joron's experience back in the 1990s [Music] that's a tidal wave of such bailan means to let it rot on the chinese web at the moment but because of chinese censorship of words like tamping and bailan it's difficult to really gauge how widespread the phenomenon is and experts caution that it's not fair to paint all chinese gen z with the same brush that is not something that would describe the majority of of young people in china that's just not the case most people are still trying to make the most out of what they can you know given whatever opportunities there are uh [Music] youths and more importantly what do they think of each other [Music] it's almost 9 p.m in beijing the city streets are still a bus with traffic and activity but it's noticeably less than what it was before the global pandemic flare-ups of the highly infectious omicron variant of covet 19 have triggered disruptive episodes of closing and reopening of the capital city twenty-eight-year-old zhang ying chu has just returned home after almost 12 hours at the office the insurance agent is still not done with work she's researching some details she thrives on the demanding hours and proudly associates with the 996 culture working 9 a.m to 9 00 pm six days a week [Music] [Music] um foreign the term 996 and the culture of overtime has a long history in chinese i.t companies they are focused on productivity and cost reduction the 996 culture proponents include alibaba co-founder jack ma and jd.com ceo richard liu a website called 996.icu was created it encouraged workers to upload their work schedules that reveal the punishing hours some 110 chinese it companies are listed on this whistle-blowing site including huawei alibaba and baidu this is some sort of developing country's phenomena they want to catch up so they work very hard these catch catch-up effects happen in many contexts so in general everyone try their best to have a much more better position in a society so everyone tried to work hard so they have this kind of mindset called 996. [Music] the ethic of hard work was the backbone on which china built its economic miracle from the 1980s and 1990s during the deng xiaoping era of market reforms 63 year old jorong prospered during that period well before the term 996 became popular foreign foreign um [Music] although she's a generation apart from jorong she shares the view that hard work is to be lauded [Music] movement is seen as a rejection of the 996 work ethic in the past 996 means that they sell them say no to the bosses they like to actually entertain bosses requests so in in china you can see older generation even they work very hard but now younger generation they know how to protect themselves because after all they they don't think they work hard they can have a better like future so they would rather actually enjoy their lives so what do the adherents of the 996 work culture think of the bailar movement [Laughter] [Music] is all who have identified themselves as bailan beg to differ for them their personal happiness comes first [Music] [Music] we are now really getting to that stage in which uh people's lives can improve uh with a higher quality and less focus on getting rich you know and that is why these young people a lot of these younger people who who can reflect you know they are actually pretty smart you know because they they think that just trying to make an extra bucket that's not the main purpose of life you know there's something else they're achieving in different areas but if bailon is simply a passive social movement why are the chinese authorities nervous about it [Music] in the important may 4th movement anniversary speech this year president xi jinping took great pains to send a strong message of empowerment to chinese youths [Music] young people will take over the future of china eventually right so so it's important for him to give the young people the encouragement xi jinping doesn't want to be looked upon and someone is very authoritarian he doesn't want to look very paternalistic so the idea is to give them a sense of empowerment and i think that is important because only when people feel that they are empowered that they have this positive attitude toward life and that will make life worthwhile worth living as well as make make china more competitive [Music] to address the social immobility and lack of opportunities that's causing the despondent attitude of bailan the chinese leadership moved to level the playing field presidency launched a common prosperity campaign in august 2021 its main objective was to narrow the wealth gap between the rich and the poor and to make sure china's progress is inclusive over competition means that everyone because of the cake is not big so everyone just try to compete for very small slice or cake so everyone just try very hard parents try very hard to cultivate their children then try to get the better higher education then try to have a better job the main problem is resources are not big the cake is not big enough so they cannot actually have more then the problem is the income inequality and also social mobility [Music] a slew of multi-pronged crackdowns was enforced to reduce inequality big tech companies were slapped with hefty fines for monopolistic practices and billionaire i.t leaders were humbled i.t companies were instructed to give more back to society in the form of charity private online education accessible to rich parents who can afford to give their children a leg up was banned this was seen as a way to level the playing field in terms of education property ownership a major sticking point for the halves and half-knots came under scrutiny to cool out the red hot property sector the government raised interest rates and restricted working capital for property developers even the 996 culture came under fire the 996 working hour system was ruled illegal by china's supreme people's court in august 2021 [Music] so clearly the discontent among the youth is a cause of concern among the chinese leadership especially at a time when a sluggish curved recovery and a real estate bubble threatened to derail the chinese economy the government definitely doesn't like people to tamping right it's just like a parent right you don't want your kids pumping government doesn't want its people to tamping because it's people are very important labor force right especially for the young generation the hope of the future country i understand that the authorities think that if you talk about tamping too much and then people may see that as a new lifestyle that is encouraged it becomes a fad you know when it becomes a kind of culture which would hurt people's perspective would limit people's perspective this is something i think suwari chinese leadership much more because a line thread means that i just take care of myself i will not actually do anything i could not buy a apartment so why not i just enjoy my life and have a lot of entertainment but by that means that i would not like to to try my best i i would just try my worst yeah so in general it's a lose-to-bottom culture in china i don't want to be a good student i just want to be a poor student then please don't touch me so it's a powerful rebellion it's part of say no to the government [Music] however are the fears of a large social movement and unrest overstated twenty-nine-year-old juan eisen feels the authorities have nothing to worry about [Music] um [Music] don't think their attitude is a problem for china either foreign foreign foreign for now at least bailan is still largely confined to the online sphere seen as a relatively fringe movement but it's something i'm intentionally not doing their job but china has large stock of the labor force uh so why people buy land because why some people buy land because they are the fierce competition in the labor market and in education so that means uh there are still a large group of people they are extremely hard working so that can ensure china's economic development but i'm sure it's a small group of the people but given china's largest skill of the population it wouldn't just threat chinese economic development i don't see bailan is a social phenomena i see that as just the kind of thinking [Music] of some some people that characterize some people and it's not the entire generation we shouldn't generalize so i don't worry about it but i think that the authorities should address the problem by confronting them and i think so far the signs are pretty positive for china especially when you compare to other countries china is doing well [Music] [Music] you

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 2,752,957

Keywords: CNA, Channel NewsAsia, Asia news, China news, People stories, unemployment, youth unemployment, quiet quitting, gen z, millenial

Id: GJ7S-nKmAr4

Length: 45min 42sec (2742 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 23 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Derpshots]

Hilarious that the first "slacker" they interview works 6 days/48 hours a week, likely more than the narrator works.

[u/ko_kenx10]

wtf…this documentary seems like a joke. So the first person works 50 hours or more a week and has a basic, boring, and unfulfilling job. Also, he has very little down time and personal leisure. Why do they make it sound like he should be bending over backwards with excitement given his general life predicament. This trend isn’t only happening in China, people are sick of working their lives away. There’s also way too many people competing and way too many old people hanging onto all of the decent jobs. It’s disgusting that this documentary preys on the diminished hope of a young generation. They are by far not the problem.

[u/jeffroddit]

I'm slacking and rotting flat. Too long didn't watch?

[u/InfiniteAwkwardness]

This is just like how the US news is talking about “quiet quitting”. Like, cmon they’re still doing their jobs, just not going above and beyond.

[u/Shawn_NYC]

Am I the only one who thinks these YouTubers are recycling scripts about 90s American teens except just switching out a few nouns?

[u/jarizzle151]

Pro business propaganda

[u/vagabonking]

WhY WoNt PeOpLe KeEp GrInDiNg ThEmSeLvEs ThRoUgH tHe MaChInE?! - People profiting off the labor probably.

[u/ToddPolt]

I can relate

[u/LivinTheHiLife]

200,000 in these online forums out of 1.4 billion in China? Seems quite sensationalist but wtf do I know