In a novel and somewhat monastic protest, youngsters in China are defying the culture of being overworked and underpaid. Refusing to no longer being a cog in the communist country’s capitalist machinery, they have devised a protest method, known as ‘tangping’ or ‘lying flat’.

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The tangping method of protest involves relaxing and doing as little as possible. The is juxtaposed to China’s gruelling 996 work culture under which the employees are known to toil from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.

The tangping protest was sparked by a blog post in April by 31-year-old Luo Huazhong. In the post titled ‘Lying Flat Is Justice’, he wrote, “I have been chilling” and that “I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong.”

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Luo had quit as a factory worker and opted for odd jobs, besides surviving on his savings. He also cycled more than 2,000 km from Sichuan Province to Tibet to live his new life.

In his blog post that later went viral, Luo was seen lying on his bed in a dark room with curtains closed. It garnered massive reaction in the country, a reflection on what the common Chinese think about the their work culture.

The communist government was quick in pulling the plug on the protest. A tangping group with over 9,000 members was taken down from a popular internet forum called Douban. As per a New York Times (NYT) report, another tangping forum with over 200,000 members was restricted. The country’s internet regulator has also told online platforms to take down posts on tangping.

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The country’s communist party-controlled media has called tangping, “shameful.” This in turn reflects that the government is in no mood to ease up the hypercompetitive work environment any time soon.