I get annoyed at people who claim that China is a success story that should be emulated. This attitude is particularly noticeable among the alt-right, who are prone to praising China for pushing ethnic nationalism. The same nation that forced the One Child Policy on its own people? Those ethnic nationalists?
Turns out, China is not so different that MGTOW isn’t happening there, too. They call it “lying down”.
Some Chinese shun grueling careers for ‘low-desire life’
h ttps://news.yahoo.com/chinese-shun-grueling-careers-low-023041128.html
By Joe McDonald and Fu Ting, 3 July 2021
BEIJING (AP) . Fed up with work stress, Guo Jianlong quit a newspaper job in Beijing and moved to China’s mountain southwest to “lie flat..
Guo joined a small but visible handful of Chinese urban professionals who are rattling the ruling Communist Party by rejecting grueling careers for a .low-desire life.” That is clashing with the party’s message of success and consumerism as its celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding.
CCP: “The toil of the peasants has made us strong! Yay us!”
Guo: “Life isn’t fun anymore. I’m going to enjoy life while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.”
CCP: “Get back on our plantation, you selfish prick!”
Beware the society in which being selfish is a privilege.
Guo, 44, became a freelance writer in Dali, a town in Yunnan province known for its traditional architecture and picturesque scenery. He married a woman he met there.
.Work was OK, but I didn’t like it much,. Guo said. .What is wrong with doing your own thing, not just looking at the money?.
That’s a profound insight that should not be profound. The New World Order is attempting to create Homo Economicus, a breed of humans that measures everything… even happiness… in terms of money. I suspect homo economicus is a consequence of hypergamy, of always looking to trade up, always scrounging for that +1 regardless of whether what you have is good enough.
It is an attitude that, like women, cannot be happy with what it has. Not even if it be a mansion.
.Lying flat. is a “resistance movement” to a “cycle of horror” from high-pressure Chinese schools to jobs with seemingly endless work hours, novelist Liao Zenghu wrote in Caixin, the country’s most prominent business magazine.
.In today’s society, our every move is monitored and every action criticized,. Liao wrote. .Is there any more rebellious act than to simply “lie flat?’.
This happens every single time that tyranny does. The Elites confiscate all the rewards of hard work then wonder why men aren’t motivated anymore. The Elites attempt to reverse that trend by lying to the men of vague future rewards then wonder why the men start lying back at them.
Beware the society in which lying is a privilege.
It isn’t clear how many people have gone so far as to quit their jobs or move out of major cities. Judging by packed rush hour subways in Beijing and Shanghai, most young Chinese slog away at the best jobs they can get.
Still, the ruling party is trying to discourage the trend. Beijing needs skilled professionals to develop technology and other industries. China’s population is getting older and the pool of working-age people has shrunk by about 5% from its 2011 peak.
What do the men need? Does China care about them? *crickets*
.Struggle itself is a kind of happiness,. the newspaper Southern Daily, published by the party, said in a commentary. “Choosing to “lie flat” in the face of pressure is not only unjust but also shameful..
The trend echoes similar ones in Japan [GQ: the herbivores] and other countries where young people have embraced anti-materialist lifestyles in response to bleak job prospects and bruising competition for shrinking economic rewards.
For all the bad consequences of telecommunications, the devil’s behavior has rarely been so… visible. He steals, kills, destroys, then rages at his victims no longer building and breeding.
Simultaneously, the devil has never been so trusted and loved. It is very frustrating for us Christians.
Official data show China’s economic output per person doubled over the past decade, but many complain the gains went mostly to a handful of tycoons and state-owned companies. Professionals say their incomes are failing to keep up with soaring housing, child care and other costs.
Sounds familiar.
In a sign of the issue’s political sensitivity, four professors who were quoted by the Chinese press talking about “lying flat” declined to discuss it with a foreign reporter.
Another possible sign of official displeasure: T-shirts, mobile phone cases and other “Lie Flat.-themed products are disappearing from online sales platforms.
So very familiar.
Urban employees complain that work hours have swelled to .9 9 6,. or 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
.We generally believe slavery has died away. In fact, it has only adapted to the new economic era,. a woman who writes under the name Xia Bingbao, or Summer Hailstones, said on the Douban social media service.
SO VERY, VERY FAMILIAR!!!
Some elite graduates in their 20s who should have the best job prospects say they are worn out from the “exam hell” of high school and university. They see no point in making more sacrifices.
.Chasing fame and fortune does not attract me. I am so tired,. said Zhai Xiangyu, a 25-year-old graduate student.
I’m tired, too. I can never afford a home or family of my own, not that I’d ever want to wife up a Commiefornia girl. All the savings I’ve built up will soon be stolen away by inflation, identity theft or God knows what. There’s no winning move. Why try? Serious question. When the thieves and locusts are smashing in your windows to rob you at noon, why?
Is it so terrible a fate to enjoy what you can, while you can, before the unavoidable consequences hit?
Some professionals are cutting short their careers, which removes their experience from the job pool.
Xu Zhunjiong, a human resources manager in Shanghai, said she is quitting at 45, a decade before the legal minimum retirement age for women, to move with her Croatian-born husband to his homeland.
.I want to retire early. I don’t want to fight any more,. Xu said. .I.m going to other places..
That sounds like a woman going MGTOW but really, she’s just monkey branching from a demanding husband to a more charitable one. Must be nice to have options like that.
Thousands vented frustration online after the Communist Party’s announcement in May that official birth limits would be eased to allow all couples to have three children instead of two. The party has enforced birth restrictions since 1980 to restrain population growth but worries China, with economic output per person still below the global average, needs more young workers.
China’s going to win the future because they’re pro-Han ethnic! Belt and Road and Will to Power! Yet they’re still killing their own future, just not as swiftly as before.
Minutes after the announcement, websites were flooded with complaints that the move did nothing to help parents cope with child care costs, long work hours, cramped housing, job discrimination against mothers and a need to look after elderly parents.
Read: not enough feminism. That’s probably why CCP is still killing their own kids: to free up the women to wage-slave for them.
Xia writes that she moved to a valley in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, for a .low-desire life. after working in Hong Kong. She said despite a high-status job as an English-language reporter, her rent devoured 60% of her income and she had no money at the end of each month.
She rejects the argument that young people who “lie flat” are giving up economic success when that’s already is out of reach for many in an economy with a growing gulf between a wealthy elite and the majority.
.When resources are focused more and more on the few people at the head and their relatives, the workforce is cheap and replaceable,. she wrote on Douban. .Is it sensible to entrust your destiny to small handouts from others?.
A woman can “lie flat” without taking an economic hit because she can always get married and make her finances her husband’s problem. For men, that’s rarely the case and we really do need to give up economic… and marital… success.
Guo impressed me that he could go MGTOW and still get married.
Guo, the writer in Dali, said he puts in more hours as a freelancer than he did at a newspaper.
Oh. That doesn’t quite sound like MGTOW.
But he is happier, and life is more comfortable: He and his wife eat breakfast on their breezy sixth-floor apartment balcony with a view of trees.
.As long as I can keep writing, I’m very satisfied,. Guo said. .I don’t feel stifled..
Regardless, I’m happy for him. All men should be so lucky.
A handful who can afford it withdraw from work almost entirely.
A 27-year-old architect in Beijing said she started saving as a teenager to achieve financial freedom.
.From last September, when I saw all my savings had reached 2 million (yuan) ($300,000), I lay down,. said the woman, who would give only the name Nana, in an interview over her social media account.
Nana said she turned down a job that paid 20,000 yuan ($3,000) per month due to the long hours and what she saw as limited opportunities for creativity.
.I want to be free from inflexible rules,. said Nana. .I want to travel and make myself happy..
Uh-oh. We know how HER story will end: with cats and Nigerian princes!
I can offer a little cultural context to the phrase “lying flat”. There is a common saying in Chinese culture that captures the attitude that women have in the face of a challenge, roughly translated as:
This phrase is taught to younger women as the right attitude to have in the face of adversity, meaning that she should not try to fight against the apparent causes of her misfortune, but rather, she should wait patiently and put her trust in a higher power. The upside of this strategy is that it liberates one from anger, revenge, bitterness, heavy responsibilities, and the burden of performance (which are all unseemly qualities for a woman to have), and therefore leads one into a relatively leisurely life.
In the case described in this post, it is men who are reverting to this dynamic. I can imagine that this might be seen as effeminate, irresponsible, or lazy. But on the other hand, it sends a very strong message that the system is broken. I agree that it is sort of like a Chinese equivalent of MGTOW, not in terms of rejecting women, but in how it allows one to escape the system and find a new and better life.
“All the savings I.ve built up will soon be stolen away by inflation, identity theft or God knows what.”
I went to HR a few years ago and asked them to reduce the percentage of money going toward my 401K. We’re not going to make it that far as a society and country. I dine out and go for long rides every weekend. I’m also stocking up on emergency food and water purification tabs.
Ayn Rand would say that, in China, Atlas is shrugging. Men of ability are abandoning their responsibilities.
A few years ago when China eased up on the one child policy… they really didn’t. What they did was institute a tremendously burdensome licensing scheme which made it possible only for the wealthy/connected to legally have a second child. I suspect this “three child” policy is more of the same. They can’t help themselves. Besides, the damage is already done to their population. They can’t recover simply by having more children now. It’s too late.
“Simultaneously, the devil has never been so trusted and loved. It is very frustrating for us Christians.”
Amen, brother!
“Why try? Serious question. When the thieves and locusts are smashing in your windows to rob you at noon, why?”
I used to have a backup plan. Well, I still have a backup plan, but it isn’t much of a “plan”. If I lose everything I will either become an actual monk or a mendicant.
I have about three backup plans and expect that the plan God wants will be none of them. But He wants me to try and fortunately, I’m discovering new hobbies during my preparations so the efforts aren’t wasted.