this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Simple Living
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These are nice to read, although his one comment about a meaningless existence sort of bums me out and reminds me of being in China and knowing Chinese people who were all depressed but didn't identify it since depression is not popularly recognized in China.
I hope he is actively choosing to live a simple life instead of feeling forced to live a simple life of passive resistance because he can't abide by the rules of his society.
I will say that living a simple life and lying down is a pretty good way to deal with frenzied capitalism-derived-depression.
Although I totally agree with “the kind traveller” that downtime, boredom, and other forms of “lying flat” are good, I agree with you: I wonder if depression is a factor here.
Disclaimer: He is born and raised in totally different culture, so maybe there’s some innate understanding that I’m lacking here.
I feel like a lot of times, the goal (or at least the ideal outcome) of this sort of lifestyle is to have your time back so you can focus on what matters: family, friends, charity, hobbies, learning, spirituality (if you’re into that), nature, new experiences, conquering fears, etc. There wasn’t any specific endorsement or rejection of these things, so maybe his thoughts on that just don’t appear in this selection of translated posts—but I agree that it sounds a little like ennui, malaise, and lethargy associated with depression. Depression runs in my family, so I’ve lived and witnessed a similar lifestyle before, and it’s certainly not conducive to a joyful existence.
There are other clues that indicate he is not lying flat for purely philosophical or fulfilling reasons, like hiding somewhere to laugh at other people scurrying to work, or using absolutes like lying flat being "the measure of all things," and in those instances I get flashes of edgy myspace journaling.
At the core, working two months a year and taking the other ten off to do what you really want to do is a great practice, and if all you want to do is literally lie down, that's fine, but I doubt that is his motivation from these particular entries.
I'd be interested to read more, and it is a movement instead of just this one guy, apparently, so have there are other lie-flat journals out there
All true. It definitely feels like there’s at least a shred of schadenfreude driving the behavior, but its hard to be sure. I read this piece last night in case you’re interested in learning more:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-lying-flat-movement-standing-in-the-way-of-chinas-innovation-drive/
It doesn’t estimate exactly how large this movement is (which is the main thing I was hoping to learn), but it’s apparently at least large enough to garner state-sponsored propaganda against it.
Oh wow. I read a couple little blurbs about it when I first read this post, but I had no idea that the government had responded to it.
Makes me think the movement is much more pervasive than the articles I read made it out to be.
There's a Wikipedia page about it, looks like it's the top searched meme on sogou.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_ping
That post that we read, apparently had a discussion group around it with $10,000 followers, looks like the CCP shut it down.
There are Tang ping t-shirts.
Survey on Weibo had 144000 user saying they'd like to embrace the movement.