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Some Chinese shun grueling careers for ‘low-desire life’
AP ^

Posted on 07/04/2021 10:12:32 AM PDT by springwater13

Fed up with work stress, Guo Jianlong quit a newspaper job in Beijing and moved to China’s mountain southwest to “lie flat.”

Guo joined a small but visible handful of Chinese urban professionals who are rattling the ruling Communist Party by rejecting grueling careers for a “low-desire life.” That is clashing with the party’s message of success and consumerism as its celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding.

Guo, 44, became a freelance writer in Dali, a town in Yunnan province known for its traditional architecture and picturesque scenery. He married a woman he met there.

“Work was OK, but I didn’t like it much,” Guo said. “What is wrong with doing your own thing, not just looking at the money?”

“Lying flat” is a “resistance movement” to a “cycle of horror” from high-pressure Chinese schools to jobs with seemingly endless work hours, novelist Liao Zenghu wrote in Caixin, the country’s most prominent business magazine.

“In today’s society, our every move is monitored and every action criticized,” Liao wrote. “Is there any more rebellious act than to simply ‘lie flat?’”

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: chat; chatforum; china; lieflat; lyingflat; redchina
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1 posted on 07/04/2021 10:12:32 AM PDT by springwater13
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To: springwater13

China continues to rot from the inside out. Infrastructure, buildings, people...


2 posted on 07/04/2021 10:15:46 AM PDT by Noumenon (The Second Amendment exists primarily to deal with those who just won't take no for an answer. KTF)
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To: springwater13

Soon these people will find themselves in the PLA.


3 posted on 07/04/2021 10:16:33 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: springwater13

Understand the difference between needs and wants. Just be sure you can provide for your needs when you get old.


4 posted on 07/04/2021 10:17:32 AM PDT by FatherofFive (We support Trump. Not the GOP)
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To: springwater13

It almost sounds like it is year 1964 over there and the Chinese hippy movement has discovered Henry David Theoreau. And maybe it is OK if you misspell an occasional word cause perfection is not necessarily completely important.


5 posted on 07/04/2021 10:21:54 AM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: springwater13

“Is there any more rebellious act than to simply ‘lie flat?’”

In China, especially, I would think that act of rebellion might lead to premature death.


6 posted on 07/04/2021 10:23:22 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: springwater13

“Careers”

Factory work with very little pay. Not quite slave labor(unless you’re an Ughyur), more like crop-share farming pay.

I guess they’re not liking the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” thing?


7 posted on 07/04/2021 10:37:12 AM PDT by Pollard
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To: springwater13

Same thing as the Japanese and hikkikomori, but worse.


8 posted on 07/04/2021 10:41:23 AM PDT by struggle
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To: Trumpet 1

Thoreau. There, I spelled the name properly. Now, if these Chinese hipsters can create a vacation cottage industry for the over-worked city people, the authorities may let the lie-flat types live to old age. Just plant lots of pretty trees and bushes and grow lots of herbs for tea. Craft beer and vine and Chinese medicine for relaxation. Botanical gardens and outdoor picnic tables. They could just about create a new form of Asheville, NC. Add a convention center and the Chinese Government could go there for rest relaxation and central planning meetings.


9 posted on 07/04/2021 10:42:03 AM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: Trumpet 1

No women to bang. Why show off success?


10 posted on 07/04/2021 10:43:57 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (1)
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To: struggle
Same thing as the Japanese and hikkikomori, but worse

I'm absolutely no expert in the Japanese language, but I think they have a word spelled in Romaji as karoshi which is supposed to mean death from overworking.

11 posted on 07/04/2021 10:49:46 AM PDT by plsvn
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To: dfwgator

Or facing the PLA.


12 posted on 07/04/2021 10:49:51 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: struggle

Thanks for making me aware of that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori


13 posted on 07/04/2021 10:55:16 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Huh?

This is FR, not the Howard Stern Show.


14 posted on 07/04/2021 10:59:51 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: springwater13
“In today’s society, our every move is monitored and every action criticized,” Liao wrote.

Liao should disappear in 3...2...1...

15 posted on 07/04/2021 11:04:48 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Menehune56
Interesting Wikipedia article for sure:

refuse to leave the home, often after experiencing one or more traumatic episodes of social or academic failure.

We are talking about marginal utility--and the weighing of benefits vs costs.

If the structure of society does not make the benefit of working greater than the costs, then many folks will choose not to work. That benefit includes both monetary and non-monetary benefits.

Modern society makes it possible for many folks to have food on the table and a roof over their heads without working or engaging in social activities.

For young men the issue of status is an important non-monetary benefit--the modern state as well as many modern females do not honor hard work among men.
16 posted on 07/04/2021 11:07:56 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: springwater13
Some Chinese shun grueling careers for ‘low-desire life’

Not news. They call them Buddhists.

17 posted on 07/04/2021 11:10:55 AM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: FatherofFive

—”Understand the difference between needs and wants. “

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
Said some old Greek guy.


18 posted on 07/04/2021 11:11:15 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: DIRTYSECRET; Olog-hai

DIRTYSECRET is right. 35 million more males than females in China. So what’s the point? This is going to be a huge problem for the CCP. My suggestion is that they look somewhere for a colony. Australia and New Zealand would be great targets. Both countries are underpopulated and they have a lot of natural resources. Will Joe Biden be willing to use nuclear weapons over Australia? I doubt it.


19 posted on 07/04/2021 11:12:10 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican (Ì)
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To: springwater13

Sounds like China’s going to need more Uigher slaves.


20 posted on 07/04/2021 11:21:56 AM PDT by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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