The Chinese “Lay Flat” Attitude: No Mortgage, No Marriage, No Kids

Lay flat image from a Chinese forum. I’m laying flat, you come and do what you wish.

It has always been tough for the vast majority of people in China. The wealth disparity is huge in China. If you are from a top city in China, then chances are that your life will be much easier than the rest of China. This has led to a despairing attitude called “Laying Flat”, where young people opt out of the usual social progressions of Chinese life: house, marriage, kids.

To live in a large city in China you need a “Hukou 户口“, a document that entitles you to live in the city. Without it you and your kids may not be able to access social services such as education and health care. If you are born in a large city, then you have no issues. If you are unfortunate enough to be part of the majority of Chinese that live outside of a large city, then without a hukou the government could easily simply round you up and send you back to your hukou location. This happens on a regular basis in China. Without a hukou you are a migrant labourer. With education and a job, your danwei or company can get you a hukou, but this is difficult.

Without a hukou you cannot buy an apartment in the city. This alone is a disincentive for people to move to a big city. Socially this is also a huge negative for young men who wish to marry. One of the prerequisites of marriage is that the guy must have a house for the new couple to live in. Families that already live in the city prepare for years in advance for this, so they are ready. If you have no family in the city and also have no hukou, it is extremely difficult for you to buy a house.

Even if you have a hukou in a large city, China’s housing prices have been skyrocketing. Even with a relatively good salary you need an extremely large mortgage to pay for an apartment. Even when you do, the apartment is only yours for the government sanctioned 70 year lease. You do not own the land nor space the apartment sits on. No one really knows what happens after the 70 year lease expires, because this has not occurred yet. For certain is that when you hand down your apartment to your kids, the 70 year lease continues and is not extended.

As an aside, the 70 year lease rules in China, Article 149 of the Property Law, started in 2007, and have only gone 14 years. There is talk of automatic extensions, or that there will be a yearly tax to renew rights, but as with all Chinese laws, while officially on the books, enforcement is left to local officials and can therefore vary greatly. Land rights can and have been revoked, depending on local government rules. When apartments are resold the 70 year lease is not extended. This is also true for inheritance passed down to family members. The land is the whole property of the Chinese state and CCP.

No house is a huge disadvantage for men wishing to marry. No house means no marriage, which means also no kids. This is the predicament of young males in China. Further complicating issues is that China’s family planning, or One Child Policy, has skewed the sex ratio such that there are mroe than 10% more males than females, adding to the competition for marriage.

These conditions all stack the deck against young men in China. The term “Laying Flat”, or 躺平， is thought to be a movement to not marry, not have a mortgage and not to have kids.

A popular new idea among Gen Z is to “lay flat”, adopting an attitude of no marriage, no mortgage and no kids.

I don’t think laying flat is a conscious decision that young people, and especially young males have made, but more of a consequence of their place in society. Young males outside of China’s large cities have the social deck stacked against them. The social convention of marriage requires the male already have a house, which is extremely expensive, even if he already has a hukou. Living expenses in China are high relative to income. Work conditions require long hours with low pay. This makes it difficult to improve oneself. Hence, it is reasonable for some young people to step back and step away from China’s social conventions of success: They Lay Flat, not by choice but by consequence.

Yesterday the Chinese government said it will allow married couples to have up to three children. Single mothers are again left out, their children denied government support. As with the extension to allow having two children, this is bound to fail. There is a lot of pressure on young people to survive in China, with very little incentive to have kids. The “lay flat” thought movement dovetails very well with the lack of kids in China. The social reasons for not having kids have similar deep, underlying reasons.

Lie-Flatism”: An excerpt from China in Focus NTD, 7’31”. New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD, Chinese: 新唐人電視台, Xīntángrén diànshìtái) is a multilingual American television broadcaster, New York City.

Lay flat image from a Chinese forum. I’m laying flat, you come and do what you wish.

Why China’s youth are ‘lying flat’ in protest of their bleak economic prospects

Young Chinese fed up with what they see as limited prospects in the face of gruelling work hours, a trend of conspicuous consumption and skyrocketing house prices are choosing to do the bare minimum. Instead of striving to buy a house, car, or even start a family, they are rejecting it all to “lie flat”.

“Lying Flat” is Making Beijing Anxious

Beijing is worried about a rising prominence of “DO NOTHING” philosophy among young people

Why are young Chinese people criticised for ‘lying flat? It proved an invaluable cultural gain for the country once
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Many young people in mainland China are not only choosing, or forced by economic circumstances, to remain childless, a substantial number of them are removing themselves from the rat race in a recent phenomenon known as “lying flat” (tangping).

Discouraged by uneven access to resources and opportunities, the futility in chasing shifting and unreachable socio-economic markers, and the heavy toll the chase is taking on their minds, bodies and relationships, many young Chinese are simply opting out.

Lying flat – China’s Silent Revolution

Beijing strikes back against the “Lying Flat” philosophy

The rat race and China’s ‘lie flat’ movement: quality is a bit low, but ok

Chinese Millennials Are ‘Chilling,’ and Beijing Isn’t Happy About It; Young people in China have set off a nascent counterculture movement that involves lying down and doing as little as possible.: Article is a bit shallow for the NYT, but ok. A little more research and depth is warranted. It does have two good links, one to the Tang Ping song on Youtube, and to the original Tang ping posting. I’ve been looking for this for a while, as it has been deleted from the Chinese Netiverse.

《躺平是王道》躺平即正义: Tang ping song， by 张不三

996过劳 Overworked by 996 (9am to 9pm, 6 days/week)
头发不见了 My hair is falling out
躺平是解药 Lying flat is the antidote

躺平真是好 Lying down is really good
躺平真是妙 Lying down is wonderful
躺平是王道 Lying down is the royal way, the right thing to do
躺平割也割不到 By Lying down you can’t be cut down, mowed over
躺平真的割不到 By Lying down you really can’t be cut down, mowed over

内卷又内耗 Involution (turning into yourself) increases internal friction
社畜自己造 This is done by social animals to themselves
躺平是正道 Lying flat is the right way

躺平真是好 Lying down is really good
躺平就是妙 Lying down is wonderful
躺平是王道 Lying down is the royal way, the right thing to do
躺平再也摔不倒 By Lying down you can’t fall down
躺平就是摔不倒 By Lying down you can’t fall down

“花呗”一时爽 Initially, Huabei (Alipay financial APP) is refreshing, and so easy
还款两头忙 But repayment seems like you need two bodies, both busy
躺平是法宝 Lying flat is the magic weapon, talisman

躺平真是好 Lying down is really good
躺平真是妙 Lying down is wonderful
躺平是王道 Lying down is the royal way, the right thing to do
躺平节能又环保 By Lying down you also protect the environment

This is a screen cap of the original Tang Ping posting, which has long been scrubbed from the Chinese internet.

The original Tang Ping post by 好心的旅行家， 2021 April 17, Weibo. It has long been censored.

两年多没有工作了，都是玩，没有觉得哪里不对，压力主要来自身边人互相对比后寻找的定位和长辈传统观念。它们会无时无刻在你身边出现，你每次看见的新闻热烈搜也都是明星恋爱，怀孕之类的“生育周边”，就像某些“看不见的生物”在制造一种思维强压给你，人大可不必如此。我可以像第欧根尼只睡在在自己的木桶里晒太阳，也可以像赫拉克利特住在山洞里思考“逻各斯”，既然这片土地从没真实存在高举人主体性的思潮，那我可以自己制造自己，躺平就是我的智者运动，只有躺平，人才是万物的尺度。

I haven’t had a job for more than two years, I have been playing, and I don’t feel anything wrong. The pressure mainly comes from the positioning of the people around me and the traditional ideas of the elders after comparing with each other. They will appear by your side all the time. Every time you see the news and enthusiastic search, they are also celebrities in love, pregnancy and other “fertility surroundings”, just like some “invisible creatures” are creating a kind of thinking and pressure on you. The National People’s Congress does not have to be like this. I can just sleep in the sun in my barrel like Diogenes, or I can live in a cave like Heraclitus and think about “Logos”, since this land has never really existed to exalt human subjectivity. Thoughts, then I can make myself, lying flat is my wise movement, only lying flat, talent is the yardstick of all things.

‘Who Are Our Enemies?’ China’s Bitter Youths Embrace Mao

New catchphrases among the young reveal this Mao-friendly mind-set. With wages stagnant, young people talk about a “consumption downgrade.” Their employers work them so hard that they call themselves “wage slaves,” “corporate cattle” and “overtime dogs.” A growing number are saying they would rather become slackers, using the Chinese phrase “tang ping,” or “lie flat.”

China Implements Three-Child Policy – Confirms Failure of One-Child Policy 9:32 explains the “lieing flat” movement

Is China’s rat-race coming to an end? Is Generation-Z bailing out?8:57 内卷，摸鱼，焦虑 anxiousness, 11:09 躺平， 内卷-》不倦-》佛系-》躺平

Work Is a False Idol: Lieing Flat in the US, similar reasoning to China

Unlike Taiwan and the US, the price of lying flat is too high for young people in China

Singles’ Day sales hit by rising anti-consumerism sentiment, China’s youth warn of ‘vicious circle’

Lying Flat Going on, Shopping Festival Deserted | 17.52 Million Bachelors in China

: A US version of laying flat

How China’s ‘lying flat’ generation is driving the country towards common prosperity