Chinese Communist party (CCP)’s 100th anniversary, a story of the “great rejuvenation of a nation” ready to be put on, is expected to move millions of people by all manner of means. Everybody is prohibited from not feeling moved for no one is free from not feeling so under communist collectivism. Everybody has to keep working hard for the Party, red DNA, red resources and red national territory. Communist party’s kitsch political propaganda is always leveraging grandiose and majestic voice-over, emotionally wrought up and fervent tone and manner, words of parallelism, hyperbolical empty slogans, affected and contrived acting on the stage and people feigning being moved with tearful eyes off the stage. In the Jiang Zemin era, kitsch official propaganda was fading out of the scene as it is really aversive. However, since Xi Jinping rose to power, kitsch style has been prevailing again: the Four-Sphere Confidence and the Two Upholds, President Xi in command of everything in person, Foreign Minister Wang Yi lavishing praise on Xi for providing Chinese diplomacy with “theories and ideological weapons” and having overtaken western international relations theories for at least 300 years. While all of this is sickeningly nauseating, the one who reigns supreme enjoys it so much.

Celebrating the feat of founding the Party this year and facilitating Xi’s everlasting regime, the authorities will be on full alert, nipping all possible destructions in the bud. Recently, the “laying-flat lifestyle” started on the internet and coming to prominence swiftly has instantly concerned the propaganda organ of the Party that considers it as “toxic chicken soup for the soul” that has to be denounced by tongue and pen. Laying-flat lifestyle is an advanced version of Buddhist style (whatever-will-be-will-be lifestyle). As the social mobility goes stationary with keen competition persisting on in the society, the pressure is too much for young people to shoulder. So, they might as well “quit the game”, putting forward six-don’ts-ism: don’t buy a car, don’t buy an apartment, don’t’ get married, don’t give birth to a child, don’t spend money, don’t work hard. They advocate laying flat, seeking only to live a leisurely and carefree life. Not only does this never-again mentality go counter to encouragement given by the authorities to work hard to make contributions to the Party, the country and the nation, but also the young people who advocate it have rumbled the exploitations glossed over by the empty rhetoric.

Everyone knows well that young people have mired in a predicament in which they have their salaries stay put, long working hours, yet a bleak future. Surely, the CCP is desirous of having them work silently, follow the example set by migrant workers of the previous generation who suffered to the fullest extent from the compulsory household registration system that discriminated against them in favor of city dwellers, willingly and readily be picked as “leeks”, and dedicate their entire life to making the economic miracle come true in China! A young man having chosen to lay flat does not mean he refuses to work, but has just rumbled the emptiness of collectivism. Those opting for personal freedom, laying flat against being picked as “leeks”, and saying no to the summon and mobilization by the Party are bound to be denounced by the Party in speech and writing. It is extraordinarily difficult for the authorities to cope with the laying-flat lifestyle because it is not a political viewpoint with guiding principles, but a way of living. If one wants to censure the advocates, one will not have a clue about where to get started. If the censure is too harsh, it will backfire by pushing the young people who are not keen on politics to the opposite side; if it lets the laying-flat lifestyle spread, it will be worried about the propaganda work for the CCP’s 100th anniversary to be spoiled. Worse still, during the trade war, the domestic demand that props up the economic circulation needs a spur. So, if the six-don’ts-ism is popularized, the retail industry will bear the brunt of it, as the young men will not be able to buy a car, regardless of whether they lay flat or not.

I believe the CCP will soon come up an idea of making use of the social credit system to deal with the young men who pursue the laying-flat lifestyle. For example, to obligate the ones laying flat to get back on their feet to be picked as leeks, the authorities might penalize those gaining a low score in patriotic education with a ban on setting out on a long journey and online shopping. The sound bite from official media to censure the advocates – “it’s fine to resign oneself to destiny, but laying flat is not allowed” – is quite aptly worded, as resigning themselves to destiny by being readily picked as leeks is their fate. Leeks laying flat are difficult to cut, which poses a threat to the Party.

(Lau Sai-leung, political commentator)

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