Something important is happening in China and it should worry the country’s political leadership. Younger Chinese are increasingly exhibiting an attitude of passive resignation, captured by the new buzzword bai lan (“let it rot”).
Born of economic disillusion and widespread frustration with stifling cultural norms, bai lan rejects the rat race and urges one to do only the bare minimum at work. Personal well-being takes precedence over career advancement.
The same tendency is reflected in another recent buzzword: tang ping (“lying flat”), a slang neologism denoting a sense of resignation in the face of relentless social and professional competition. Both terms signal a rejection of societal pressures to overachieve and of social engagement as a fool’s game with diminishing returns.
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