In China, one can get shot even when lying flat.

A recent article on the internet in China, “Tangping is righteous,” has sparked a heated debate. Tangping literally means “lying down” or “lying flat,” and this “lying-downism” or “flatness doctrine” advocates “breaking free from all kinds of homeownership, car purchasing, marriage, family life, and consumption” and “maintaining a minimalist living, refusing to become a money-making machine and an exploited slave.” The author does not encourage “people who do not want to be slaves” to rise up, but only suggests the idea of living a “hea” life (editor’s note: a Cantonese slang which basically means to be idle and lazy), and aim to be “a leek that is not easy to harvest,” meaning don’t be a gullible minion who is played for a sucker.

At face value, this advocacy is close to the anti-consumerism of some industrial societies. The author said that he “can eat just two meals a day and work one to two months a year,” which is on par with Henry David Thoreau, the originator of civil disobedience. In his book “Walden,” Thoreau advocated simple living in a natural environment, working only 30-odd days a year, to resist a material-focused society where the craving for material things can never be satisfied.

After the burst of the Japanese bubble economy in 1991, the term “low-desire society” proposed by Kenichi Ohmae resembled closely with “lying-downism.” As Japan’s economy stagnated and production lines migrated out of the country, the structure of its society gradually formed into an M-shape, where the middle class gradually assimilated into the lower-income group. Young generations had few opportunities to move up the social ladder and began to give up their hopes for the middle class. Without enthusiasm for life, motivation to struggle and passion to pursue higher social status, they lost the desire for materialism and success. As a result, otaku culture and living in cyber cafes became increasingly popular.

But China has benefited from globalization, and success stories like Jack Ma’s have molded the myth of class mobility. Why is the young generation not “studying hard and aiming for excellence” and instead aspire to “laying down”? Some analysts say that the “flatness doctrine” is a kind of opposition to the “involution” of Chinese society. This sociological concept has been repeatedly given contemporary meaning in China, to the effect that things are not advancing, but instead creating a complex system of internal competitions and internal friction. The social anthropologist Xiang Biao describes such an economy as “a gyroscope that keeps spinning itself to death” and “a kind of competition that does not allow failure and withdrawal.” For example, employees competing to work late only end up with a weak advantage of saving their jobs. That is to say, many people see that they are only setting the stage for other people to prosper under this “crony capitalism.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) criticizes “lying-downism” as shameful, and even says, “It is okay to accept one’s fate, but it is not okay to tangping.” All this is because the “Chinese Dream” is sustained by its countless citizens who do not engage in politics, but are devoted to their work and consumption. This kind of ideology of removing materialistic desires and not doing anything productive is not only damaging to the economy, but the smell of “non-cooperative movement” is also a cause for concern for the regime. If we read the author’s original passage carefully, we can learn to appreciate it: “I haven’t worked for more than two years, but don’t feel there is anything wrong with just chilling. Stress primarily comes from the people around you, making comparisons with each other and finding their own identity, as well as from the traditional mindset of the elders...creating some sort of mental pressure on you. One does not have to live like this. I could be like Diogenes, who lived in a barrel under the sun, or like Heraclitus, who lived in a cave on the mountain to ponder about “logos.” Since there has never been any real thought to uphold human subjectivity on this land, I will do it myself. Only by lying flat, mankind can be the measure of all things.”

Diogenes was an ancient Greek cynic philosopher who is said to have lived in a barrel with nothing more than the barrel, a cloak, a stick and a bag of bread. One day, he was basking in the sun when Alexander the Great came to visit him, asking him what he needed and promising to grant him his wish. To this he replied, “I wish you would stand out of my light.” This contempt for power and material things stemmed from the confidence in his own spiritual self.

Heraclitus was melancholy by nature and was known as the “weeping philosopher.” Born into a noble family, he gave up the throne to his brother and withdrew to a cave to reflect on logos, or the logic of all things. He said he had a fear of the prestigious and was content with the little things in life. However, he never completely dissociated himself from politics. When the ancient Greek city of Ephesus banished his friends, he said: “Every adult in Ephesus would be better off hanging himself and leaving the city to the youngsters who are still naive.” He called on the people to defend the law and to put an end to tyranny.

The author of “Tangping is righteous” argues that China has never embraced the idea of “human subjectivity.” Not only is this a critique of vulgar consumerism, but it is a rebuke of the mindset that emphasizes “sacrifice for a greater good” and “subordination of individual interest to the general interest” to the ultimate extinction of one’s self-interest. For many young Chinese people, this strong state system is unbreakable, so they can only tangping to preserve their spiritual freedom.

The people of Hong Kong have not yet resigned themselves to their fate. On June 4, in spite of being like a moth to a flame, Chow Hang Tung still defended the backline of the peaceful rally, several churches held memorial services under heavy police surveillance, and the public even went out into the busy districts to light candles in remembrance. Margaret Ng once said, “Bloodshed is inevitable, but the question is whether we can safeguard our bottom line of not bowing down.

Hong Kong is not lying flat yet.

(Chan Kin-man is one of the founders of Occupy Central with Love and Peace Campaign.)

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

Click here for Chinese version

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