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‘Lying down flat’ as passive resistance in China · Global Voices

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2021-06-14 10:30:12

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A new viral term promoting slow living has taken China’s cyberspace by storm, and authorities are moving quickly to stamp it out.

Tangping (躺平), or “lying down flat” is a counter-culture philosophy championing minimalism and anti-consumerism.

The “lying down flatist” believes that people are more than mere extensions of capital. The “lying down flatist” is in open rebellion against the hard-working, credit-hungry, striving existence promoted from the top down in China.

The idea originated from a short post, “Lying down flat signifies justice”, published on a mainland Chinese forum, Baidu Tieba, in April.

兩年多沒有工作了，都在玩，沒覺得哪裡不對，壓力主要來自身邊人互相對比後尋找的定位和長輩的傳統觀念，它們會無時無刻在你身邊出現。你每次看見的新聞熱搜也都是明星戀愛、懷孕之類的『生育周邊』，就像某些『看不見的生物』在製造一種思維強壓給你，人大可不必如此。我可以像第歐根尼只睡在自己的木桶裡曬太陽，也可以像赫拉克利特住在山洞裡思考『邏各斯』，既然這片土地從沒真實存在高舉人主體性的思潮，那我可以自己製造給自己，躺平就是我的智者運動，只有躺平，人才是萬物的尺度。