New research links the “tang ping” phenomenon, in which young Chinese people reject the work culture to “lay down,” and lower life satisfaction.
A recent study carried out in China concluded that young people who adopt the lifestyle known as “tang ping” tend to have lower levels of satisfaction with life.
The investigation also indicates that this passive attitude it is not just a consequence of discontent: on the contrary, joining the movement anticipated a decrease in personal satisfaction over time. The work was in the scientific journal Behavioral Sciences.
The emerged as a silent response to the strong social and professional pressures experienced by many young Chinese people. The expression describes the choice to “lay down”, that is, give up traditional success goals — such as promotions, purchasing your own home or getting married — and limiting ambitions to the minimum necessary to live.
The movement is linked to the strain caused by long working hours, high housing prices, economic inequalities and the perception of limited social mobility, as well as the criticism of the “996” labor modelwhich involves working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.
Chinese state authorities and media outlets have criticized the phenomenon as defeatist and socially irresponsible, and some online debates have even been censored. The concept is often compared to trends observed in other societies, such as “the” or “neither-nor” youth.
The research was led by Huanhua Lu and colleagues, who conducted two studies of university students in Beijing. In the first, with 960 participants, the researcher found a clear association between greater adherence to “tang ping” and a lower satisfaction with lifeeven after controlling for factors such as gender, age, type of university and subjective socioeconomic status. Women and students from universities with fewer resources tended to adhere more to this attitude, says the .
In the second study, followed up over a month, the results demonstrated that initial adherence predicted a subsequent reduction in life satisfaction. The opposite did not happen: less satisfied young people did not, for that reason alone, start to adopt this stance more. For the authors, “tang ping” can function as a temporary break from stressbut it entails psychological costs in the medium term.
