The term “leek” is a self-deprecating term used by the Chinese “common people” in recent years, which means similar to “lambs to be slaughtered”, when the people become rich and become rich leeks, they will become the target of officials and businessmen. When the people become rich and become rich leeks, they become the target of harvesting by officials and businessmen. In recent years, various financial scams and stock market scams have been staged in China, and corrupt officials and crooked businessmen are in cahoots with each other. “leeks”. Over the years, under the materialism advocated by the Chinese Communist Party, a small number of boomers have become lovers of high-priced consumer goods, and some years ago in Hong Kong there were even frequent images of Chinese noblemen lining up outside boutiques. But for young Chinese in the post-90s, this pursuit is impractical. The impoverishment of the middle class has long been an indisputable fact, and the children of middle-class families grow up quite aware of the unattainable lifestyle of the rich, who, in the end, cannot afford to spend money.
In recent months, “lie flatism” suddenly emerged, is a silent protest to reflect the current state of existence of the post-90s. Simply put, “lay flatism” initiative “do not buy a house, do not buy a car, do not get married, do not give birth to a child, do not consume” and so on the so-called six notism, in fact, this is not a political advocacy, but a philosophy of life, the goal is ” The goal is “to maintain a minimum standard of living and refuse to become a machine for others to make money and a slave to be exploited”. Although it was officially suppressed and censored, the trend spread rapidly among young people.
Officials, of course, saw this negative attitude as a kind of political rebellion. In the face of the rebellious young people, the Communist Party, which has to decide everything on its own, had to come out and reprimand and suppress the relevant speech. The “lie flat” argument is a harmful “poisonous chicken soup”. Officials reminded young people that “the essence of low desire is the lack of development motivation”, but “China is the world’s most populous country, abundant labor resources, has the advantage of a large market, China’s economic development prospects are broad. In other words, in this land, as long as one is diligent enough, one can still achieve self-fulfillment and self-fulfillment”. Unfortunately, the proportion of China’s working population has actually reversed and declined since 2010, and a demographic crisis is imminent. The pandemic of “lie-flatism” may have a greater negative impact on the demographic structure than the Wuhan pneumonia pandemic, and will undoubtedly add insult to injury, as millennials who do not want to be leeks for themselves and the next generation will have their own way of responding.
It’s worth noting that the pandemic of “lie flatism” is somewhat related to the phenomenon of “involution” that emerged in China earlier, and why young people are gradually seeing their situation clearly. It is because the phenomenon of “involution” has gradually emerged since the second millennium, and the so-called “involution” means that input does not mean development, and more work does not necessarily mean more reward. This is the reason why the concept of “involution” resonated in the past. The popularity of the concept of “involution” is a result of the growing sense among companies, families, and individuals that everyone is engaged in a homogeneous but ineffective competition that does not promote greater returns and real improvements in the lives of groups or individuals.
Most of the millennials were only children twenty years ago. As they grow up, they see that their parents, the only children of the previous generation, often encounter bottlenecks in their struggle for success because of the “involution” of society. The more they want to succeed, the more they find that their efforts are not proportional to their gains. The sadder thing is that the hard-earned money is either being pitched or invested to buy a house.
The first generation of only children grew up and found that not only did they have to raise their children, but they also had to support their parents. The millennials, as the second generation of only children, understand the need to “lie flat” only when they see the “poor condition” of their parents. Faced with this apparently uncooperative attitude, the Chinese Communist Party has no countermeasures, lectures or simply does not take it seriously. However, with the accelerated aging of the population, I am afraid that if the major part of the future workforce is in a negative state, it will be more difficult to maintain the “economic development” that the CCP believes in.
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