Demoralized young Chinese are looking for pathways out of the carefully scripted lives their elders want for them

Young people in China are becoming more rebellious, questioning their nation’s traditional expectations of career and family

  • ErinCrush@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Ahh yes. Lemmy’s favorite. Another “China bad” article. This is the same shit as “no one wants to work anymore”. Non news, ignore this shit.

  • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Great phrase, much more impact than quiet quit. I have plenty of sympathy for them, though that dipped substantially when one of the people they profiled became a “certified life coach” oh my god.

    • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Quiet quit was always the establishment’s phrase anyway.

      They made it up to spread a manufactured panic about people rationally refusing to do more than their contracts say for no more than their contract pay.

    • jdf038@mander.xyzEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      You’ve never encountered photojournalism?! I know they are cutting budgets for photographers but that seems sad to me.

  • Meowoem@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    11 months ago

    This is becoming a real perennial story, from what I gather the lay flat movement isn’t really very significant it’s probably less influential in China than incels are here, or a smaller niche that’s harder to think of - maybe like the nofap community or something. Big in some weird online spaces but pretty much unheard of out of it.

    It’s an interesting one, kinda like Ken Keasy but without the acid.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        I’m not connecting it to sex I’m using them as examples of groups that if this was a Chinese forum we might be reading about and thinking they’re significant but were we to then ask a random American most wouldn’t have even heard of them and those that have would almost universally tell you are meaningless and not taken seriously.

        When using one thing as an example of a certain facet of something it’s generally understood that the other aspects aren’t important - the sun is round like a cricket ball doesn’t imply it’s the same size or that it’s used for sport.

    • lefaucet@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Thanks for making me google Ken Keasy lol. I liked Cuckoos nest. I had no idea the author was an Army psychedlic test subject and worked in a psyciactric ward

      Could you clarify how it’s like Ken Keasy?

      PS -why you getting downvoted so hard? Due to lack of references or something?

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        I was thinking of Leary’s tune in, drop out kinda thing and Keasy was a big part of that movement.

        And the downvoting is probably because they want to belive this is a big thing in China because it would go towards the view they want to be true, but the reality is cccp is hugely popular and the obsessive work ethic is still a driving force.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      11 months ago

      Its just a generic filler article that gets posted about young people every year or two.

      “Quiet Quitting” was the thing in 2022.

      “Great Resignation” was the thing in 2021

      You can find articles about this in 2019, 2016, omfg all over the place in the wake of 2008, “Jobless Recovery” from 2004 to 2006, in the 90s it was “Slackers” and in the 80s it was “Punks” and in the 70s and 60s it was “Hippies” and then back to Beatniks and Anarchists and of course, the old crowd favorite, Pinko Commies.

      This is just a more recent mash up of the “China Bad” and “Nobody Wants To Work Anymore” meme

    • withnail@infosec.pubEnglish
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      11 months ago

      Over half of Americans read at below a 6th grade reading level. So it makes sense that they want to bring back picture books.

    • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      The Tiktok Manga Slideshow format has finally migrated to major news sites I see.

      God I hate tech this decade.

      • rwhitisissle@lemy.lolEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        God I hate tech this decade.

        I feel this sentiment in my bones. I know it gets overused, but the word of the decade so far really does seem to be enshittification. The only thing that seems to be getting better is self-hosting, which is still a massive pain in the ass for a lot of things.

    • intelshill@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Yeah. China’s speed running to true communism at a pace I wasn’t expecting. There’s a legitimate chance for the elimination of scarcity of basic goods in China “soon”, which would lead to a flourishing of the arts.

      • lefaucet@slrpnk.netEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        Got any good examples of this?

        I do know that between 1950 and 2000 poverty and starvation dropped like a stone. I havent been watching closely enough to tell for the past couple decades. I don’t mean to sound cynical, but it can be hard to tell what’s slavery and what’s improvement of living standards through the media and on such short timescales

        I know theyre installing a ton of solar/wind. Superbundance could happen there and that could be great. I got my fingers crossed.

        How’s agriculture doing?

        I think they’re very well positioned with electric cars and are going to take marketshare from everyone else in that industry.

        I hope they quit killing the sea and bossing around their neighbors

        Their effots in Africa are probably going to benefit them greatly. I hope they arent doing to Africa whatthre US did with South America in early/mid 20th century… with the saddling of unpayable debts, extracting resources and installing viscious dictators

        I read recently OPECy folks are openly conspiring to flood Africas market with cheap and shitty fossil fuel power plants and cars to expand the oil market. It’d be rad someone flooded it with cheaper and better electric cars/heatpumps and renewable power. I wish the US/Europe would

  • Thirdborne@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    This message keeps being spread. Wonder how significant it is or if it’s like a handful and propagandists are making it out to be a trend?

  • Grogon@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    11 months ago

    It’s interesting because people are people and it doesn’t matter where you are born.

    If you look at it from a birds eye view you will see a younger, smart generation trying to fight it’s own governments.

    It’s not USA vs China vs Russia vs Europe etc. it is the younger generation vs the old generation. Currently each generation is fighting it’s own government and slowly realising how poor they have done in the last decades.

    Nobody wants war.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
      0·
      11 months ago

      t’s not USA vs China vs Russia vs Europe etc. it is the younger generation vs the old generation

      No, it’s owning class vs working class, anything else is a distraction in service of the owning class.

      Workers of the world, unite! ✊

      (edited in image. If you need image description - source)

      • areyouevenreal@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        Even marxists don’t simplify the classes as much as that diagram suggests. It’s missing peasants, artisans and the petty bourgeois. It’s also never been as simple as capitalist vs working class. Capitalists regularly fight amongst themselves as do the working class. This whole idea of class struggle being the only struggle is so oversimplified it’s kinda silly.

        I don’t think it’s honest to frame it in generational language either btw. Though that is a component of it.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          11 months ago

          This whole idea of class struggle being the only struggle is so oversimplified it’s kinda silly.

          There’s nothing wrong with a simplified model if it gets you the results you’re looking for. And for the vast majority of the working class thinking in simplistic terms such as capitalist vs. worker would improve their lives tremendously.

          The more complex models might be useful for explaining how things change and evolve. But mainly complexity is introduced by capitalists (or capitalist simps) to sow discord among workers and keep us from organizing effectively.

    • Psychodelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Idk, if I was young and rich I probably wouldn’t give a shit about changing anything. I’d maybe even invest in anything that promised to keep things the same

      • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        That’s EXACTLY what they do - invest I’m anything that promised to keep things the same, this is our salary.