So you choose to “Lie Flat?” “Sang-ness,” affective economies, and the “Lying Flat” movement

ABSTRACT

This study aims to analyze the affective economies that propel the viral circulations of the “Lying Flat” movement as a form of youth counternarrative in contemporary China with a special focus on the historic specificity and social imaginary revolving around the “Lying Flat” meme on Chinese social media. This study sees affect as social actions and historical constructs, exploring the sociohistorical conditions of the movement and an analysis of the bodily experience in the “Lying Flat” meme. The transduction of such experience further propels the development of the “Lying Flat” movement. We intend, through this study, to offer a detailed understanding of the uptake, circulation, and affect of the recent youth counternarratives in China. Transduction of affect across audio-visual resources in multimodality in this case suggests that objects of emotions can simultaneously take on varied forms, which propels wider circulations of affect that bind collective identities of marginalized groups of individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Lying Flat
• affective economy
• youth counternarrative
• internet subculture
• Chinese social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For the definition of the character “躺,” see “Tang 躺” [Lie], Cihai 辞海, accessed January 6, 2022, https://www.cihai.com.cn/search/words?q=%E8%BA%BA.

2 For the definition of the character “平,” see “Ping 平” [Flat], Cihai 辞海, accessed January 6, 2022, https://www.cihai.com.cn/search/words?q=%E5%B9%B3.

3 For more information on the term, see “Tangping 躺平” [Lying Flat], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified December 9, 2021, 11:15, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%BA%BA%E5%B9%B3/24123069. See also AFP Beijing, “China’s Disenchanted Youth ‘Lie Flat’ to Cope with Modern Life,” France24, March 6, 2021, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210603-china-s-disenchanted-youth-lie-flat-to-cope-with-modern-life; Elsie Chen, “These Chinese Millennials Are ‘Chilling,’ and Beijing Isn’t Happy,” New York Times, July 3, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/world/asia/china-slackers-tangping.html.

4 In order to retrieve information of this web-post, we have resorted to Hu and Zhang’s study on this issue. See Hu Fanzhu 胡范铸 and Zhang Hongqian 张虹倩, “‘Tangping’ yuqing: yanxing fenlie zhong de shehui jiaolu he ziwo zhiyu ‘躺平’舆情: 言行分裂中的社会焦虑和自我治愈” [‘Lying Flat’ public opinion: social anxiety and self-healing in the split of words and deeds], Qingnian Xuebao 青年学报, no. 4 (2021): 53.

5 Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point (New York: Back Bay Books, 2002), 12.

6 For example, see Cai Qi 蔡骐 and Zhao Jiayue 赵嘉悦, “Jushenxing renzhi, kuaquanceng qinggan yu xiucihua kangzheng: dui meijie huayu ‘tangping’ de yizhong fansi 具身性认知、跨圈层情感与修辞化抗争:对媒介话语“躺平”的一种反思” [Embodied recognition, cross-circle emotion and rhetorical resistance: reflection on the ‘Lying Flat’ media discourse], Chuanmei Guancha 传媒观察, no. 5, (2022): 42–48.

7 Sarah Ahmed, “Affective Economies,” Social Text 22, no. 2 (2004): 119.

8 For more on this song, see Zhangbusan 张不三, “Tangping shi wangdao 躺平是王道” [Lying Flat is the way], YouTube Video, 2:51, June 12, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=corZx0a1yRU.

9 Casey Boyle, James J. Brown Jr., and Steph Ceraso, “The Digital: Rhetoric Behind and Beyond the Screen,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 48, no. 3, (2018): 257–258.

10 There are multiple reasons why we choose to adopt the concept of transduction in our analysis. First, as discussions of the “Lying Flat” movement mostly reside in digital public sphere, we find the theoretical underpinning of transduction particularly suitable for the analysis, which is the multisensory, embodied, and pervasiveness of digital practices. Second, transduction means the way in which a signal moves across disparate registers of relations; this suggests affect is not simply “out there” and traveling endlessly in flux, but exists in relationality and in our orientations towards others and objects, and it also involves a sense of metamorphosis, which is suitable for our analysis of how anxiety can transform from human bodies (the “Lying Flat” body) to the more abstract appropriations (belowness), and then to memes of various genres. Third, transduction cannot be easily located in any one subject or object, which is similar to Ahmed’s conceptualization of emotions as something that a subject does not “have”, but are created through relationality. See Boyle et al., “The Digital,” 257–258.

11 Margaret Wetherell, Tim McCreanor, Alex McConville, Helen Moewaka Barnes, and Jade le Grice, “Settling Space and Covering the Nation: Some Conceptual Considerations in Analysing Affect and Discourse,” Emotion, Space and Society 16, (2015): 58.

12 Margaret Wetherell, Affect and Emotion: A New Social Science Understanding (London: SAGE, 2012), 159.

13 Shui-yin Sharon Yam, “Affective Economies and Alienizing Discourse: Citizenship and Maternity Tourism in Hong Kong,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 46, no. 5, (2016): 2.

14 Lily Wong, Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work, Media Networks, and Affective Histories of Chineseness (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 8.

15 Ahmed, “Affective Economies,” 124.

16 Jenny Rice Edbauer, “Unframing Models of Public Distribution: From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35, no. 4 (2005): 9.

17 Wetherell, Affect and Emotion, 159.

18 Sarah Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 42.

19 Sarah Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 66.

20 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 97.

21 The “Sang culture” often refers to a rising Internet subculture of young people (particularly those born after the 1990s and 2000s) expressing their depression from their daily lives, study, career, or relationships, using pessimistic words, language, or images to reveal their anxiety, helplessness, or even despair. The “Ge You tang 葛优躺” [Ge You slouch] mentioned later in the article is one of the most representative Internet memes in the “Sang culture.” For more on this term, see “Sang wenhua 丧文化” [Sang culture], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified October 14, 2022, 14:34, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%A7%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96/19892924?fr=aladdin.

22 Paul A. Prior and Julie A. Hengst, “Introduction: Exploring Semiotic Remediation,” in Exploring Semiotic Remediation as Discourse Practice, eds. Paul A. Prior and Julie A. Hengst (London: Palgrave Macmilan, 2010), 2.

23 The word “Diaosi 屌丝” [Male genital hair] was later partly replaced by “Feichai 废柴” [Useless firewood] due to its nature as profanity, both words are still in use today and can be roughly understood as “losers” in English. See also “Diaosi wenhua 屌丝文化” [Losers’ culture], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified June 8, 2022, 09:21, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B1%8C%E4%B8%9D%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96/357503?fr=aladdin.

24 A term surfaced on the Internet at the end of 2017 depicting a low desire state of mind. See “Foxi 佛系” [Buddha-like culture], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified July 5, 2022, 19:33, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BD%9B%E7%B3%BB/22257892.

25 Apart from its meaning as fierce domestic competitions, “Neijuan” also stands for “more efforts, less returns.” See “Neijuan 内卷” [Involution], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified January 10, 2022, 20:34, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%85%E5%8D%B7/54275161. The popularity of this term may have directly led to the rise of the “Lying Flat” movement in China.

26 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 92–94.

27 Laurie E. Gries, Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics (Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2015), 3.

28 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 92–93.

29 A term that has surfaced around the emergence of “Sang culture” in China. Often considered as a rough equivalent of “Diaosi 屌丝,” this term represents those who are under-privileged and plain-looking, as the polar opposite of “Gao fu shuai 高富帅” (male) and “Bai fu mei 白富美” (female). For more on this term, see “Qiong ai cuo 穷矮搓” [Poor, short, and ugly], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified September 29, 2022, 21:38, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A9%B7%E7%9F%AE%E6%90%93/6727536?fr=aladdin.

30 See also “Gao fu shuai 高富帅” [Tall, rich and handsome], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified December 8, 2021, 15:52, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%AB%98%E5%AF%8C%E5%B8%85/5487667; “Bai fu mei 白富美” [White, rich, and beautiful], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified July 26, 2019, 17:03, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%99%BD%E5%AF%8C%E7%BE%8E/9462281.

31 For more on this Policy, see: Long Xinmin 龙新民, Zhongguo Gongchandang lishi zhongyao shijian cidian 中国共产党历史重要事件系列辞典 [Dictionary of Important Historic Events of the Communist Party of China], Zhongguo Gongchandang lishi xilie cidian 中国共产党历史系列辞典 [Dictionaries of the History of the Communist Party of China] (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe 中共党史出版社, 2019), 398.

32 The socialist market economy generally referred to a hybrid form of socialist social institutions and market economy, which granted a relative sense of freedom to the market, but the operations of the market are still under strict state supervision. For more on this term, see: Zhang Guangjie 张光杰, Zhongguo falv gailun 中国法律概论[An introduction to laws in China] (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2005), 250.

33 The average price of residential commodity houses in China nearly increased five-fold in less than 20 years. The increase is even greater for major cities locate on the relatively more developed eastern region of the country. For more information, see “Guojia shuju 国家数据” [National data], National Bureau of Statistics, accessed July 11, 2022, https://data.stats.gov.cn/adv.htm?m=advquery&cn=C01.

34 The “big family” value is a result of the traditional family forms in China with all family members living together (grandparents, siblings, cousins, etc., hence the “big family”), which greatly values intimacy and connections between family members. The influence of the “big family” value is still persistent in modern Chinese society. See: Yang Juhua 杨菊华 and He Zhaohua 何炤华, “Shehui zhuanxing guocheng zhong jiating de bianqian yu yanxu 社会转型过程中家庭的变迁与延续” [Changes and continuations of families in social transitions], Renkou Yanjiu 人口研究 38, No. 2, (2014): 36–51.

35 Also known as “Bierenjia de haizi 别人家的孩子” in Chinese, a popular internet meme that generally stands for peers who outperforms you in educational background, career development, or physical attributes. For more on this term, see “Bierenjia de haizi 别人家的孩子” [Other people’s children], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified April 16, 2022, 22:59, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%88%AB%E4%BA%BA%E5%AE%B6%E7%9A%84%E5%AD%A9%E5%AD%90/5972691?fr=aladdin.

36 Alvin K. Wong, “Towards a Queer Affective Economy of Boys’ Love in Contemporary Chinese Media,” Continuum 34, no. 4, (2020): 5.

37 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 11.

38 Hauke Lehmann, Hans Roth, and Kerstin Schankweiler, “Affective Economy,” in Affective Societies: Key Concepts, eds. Jan Slaby and Christian von Scheve (Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge, 2019), 150.

39 See “Jiuling hou 90后” [The 90s generation], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified January 2, 2022, 17:21, https://baike.baidu.com/item/90%E5%90%8E/1992490?fr=aladdin.

40 The latest report on migrant workers published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed a general decrease of the 16–20 age group (from 2.6% in 2017 to 1.6% in 2021) and the 21–30 age group (27.3% in 2017 to 19.6% in 2021) in the age structure of the entire population of migrant workers in China. For more on this information, see National Bureau of Statistics, erlingeryi nian nongmingong jiance diaocha baogao 2021年农民工监测调查报告 [Report of Survey on Migrant Workers 2021], April 29, 2022, http://www.stats.gov.cn/xxgk/sjfb/zxfb2020/202204/t20220429_1830139.html.

41 A term often appears in internet memes as doing exhausting and boring work with scanty income. See “Banzhuan 搬砖” [Lifting bricks], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified February 24, 2021, 07:25, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%90%AC%E7%A0%96.

42 The most recent report on China’s internet development from the Cyberspace Administration of China revealed that a major population of this group are people of the “90s generation.” See China Internet Network Information Center, The 47th China Statistical Report on Internet Development, February 3, 2021, http://www.cac.gov.cn/2021-02/03/c_1613923423079314.htm.

43 Douglas Eyman, Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015), 45.

44 After initial turbulences in its implementations in the 1980s, the single-child policy was in full force in the 1990s. See “Dushengzinv zhengce 独生子女政策” [Single-child policy], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified November 9, 2021, 09:48, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%8B%AC%E7%94%9F%E5%AD%90%E5%A5%B3%E6%94%BF%E7%AD%96/12604254#reference-[20]-11957490-wrap.

45 “Jiujiuliu gongzuozhi 996工作制” [996 working system], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified June 3, 2022, 10:32, https://baike.baidu.com/item/996%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%9C%E5%88%B6/19940031.

46 Lehman et al., “Affective Economy,” 140.

47 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 4.

48 Ahmed, “Affective Economies,” 119.

49 Ibid.,128.

50 See “Qinghua jiaoshou Li Fengliang cheng ‘tangping jibu fuze, duibuqi fumu,’ tangping cuozaina? 清华教授李锋亮称“躺平极不负责, 对不起父母,”躺平错在哪?” [Professor Li Fengliang from Tsinghua University: “Lying Flat is highly irresponsible, you have failed your parents,’ what is wrong with ‘lying flat’”?], Netease 网易, May 30, 2021, https://www.163.com/dy/article/GB86T9HI0542OOFV.html.

51 See: “Yu Minhong cheng nianqingren buneng tangping, bei wangyou chaofeng 俞敏洪称年轻人不能躺平,被网友嘲讽” [Yu Minhong mocked for saying “young people should not Lie Flat”], Guancha 观察者网, May 31, 2021, https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1701253584688416368&wfr=spider&for=pc.

52 Wang Qingfeng 王庆峰, “‘Tangping’ kechi, nalaide zhengyigan? ‘躺平’可耻, 哪来的正义感?” [“Lying Flat” is shameful, what is the justice in doing it?], Nanfang Daily 南方日报, May 20, 2021, https://epaper.southcn.com/nfdaily/html/2021-05/20/content_7944231.htm.

53 For more of this video, see Zaixiaxiaosu 在下小苏, “Cong Yanjiao dao Beijing: meitian tongqin liu xiaoshi shangban, ni neng jianchi duojiu? 从燕郊到北京: 每天通勤6小时上班, 你能坚持多久?” [From Yanjiao to Beijing: spending six hours on daily commuting, how long can you keep doing it?], Bilibili Video, 10:55, May 18, 2021, https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1qB4y1F7y5?from=search&seid=897363663977896246&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0.

54 Mary Poovey, “The Liberal Civil Subject and the Social in 18th Century British Moral Philosophy,” Public Culture 14, no. 1 (2002): 131.

55 For example, one well known response from the “Lying Flat” community is the question “how can I keep on fighting if my ‘blood bar’ is empty?” The “blood bar” metaphor is a popular internet meme in China originally referring to the in-game health bar of video game characters. If the ‘blood bar’ is empty, then the character would presumably be dead, this was later adopted to real life scenarios where someone is feeling low and is on the verge of collapsing. See “Xuecao yikong 血槽已空” [Blood bar is empty], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified April 4, 2022, 18:23, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%A1%80%E6%A7%BD%E5%B7%B2%E7%A9%BA/22210124.

56 Yam, “Affective Economies and Alienizing Discourse,” 8.

57 A term originated from the Japanese phrase “Shachiku しゃちく,” initially referring to office workers who are heavily exploited by their companies, now more generally representing young people with weak economic foundations and have to endure extremely long working hours. For more on this term, see “Shechu 社畜” [Livestock of the company], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified April 27, 2022, 08:22, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A4%BE%E7%95%9C.

58 A term now generally functions similarly as “Shechu.” See “Dagongren 打工人” [Laboror], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified April 30, 2022, 20:22, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%89%93%E5%B7%A5%E4%BA%BA/54050409.

59 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 97.

60 See “Ge jiucai 割韭菜” [Cutting Chinese chives], Baidu Baike 百度百科, last modified August 31, 2021, 16: 53, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%89%B2%E9%9F%AD%E8%8F%9C.

61 Susanna Paasonen (2016) “Fickle Focus: Distraction, Affect and the Production of Value in Social Media,” First Monday 21, no. 10, (2016), https://firstmonday.org/article/view/6949/5629.

62 Laurie Gries, “Agential Matters: Tumbleweed, Women-Pens, Citizen-Hope, and Rhetorical Acatancy,” in Ecology, Writing Theory, and New Media: Writing Ecology, ed. Sidney I. Dobrin (New York: Routledge, 2011), 79.

63 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 91.

64 “Shuangjian zhengce xia, buke jigou liangle, jiazhang ganyuan tangping ma? 双减政策下, 补课机构凉了, 家长甘愿躺平吗?” [Training centers are done for under the new double reduction policy: will parents choose to Lie Flat?], Tencent News 腾讯新闻, August 7, 2021, https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210807A0ADSO00

65 Yang Bingke 杨冰柯, “Lanweilou fengxian ruhe huajie? Fangqi buneng tangping 烂尾楼风险如何化解? 房企不能躺平” [How to dissolve the risk from unfinished buildings? Housing enterprises should not ‘Lie Flat’], Sina Finance 新浪财经, July 14, 2022, http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2022-07-14/doc-imizirav3363091.shtml.

66 Xu Shaolian 许绍连, “Yangxing kunrao zhongguo nanlan, guoji saichang de ‘tangping’ chuandile shenme xinxi? 阳性困扰中国男篮, 国际赛场的“躺平”传递了什么信息?” [Troubled by positive Covid results, what message did they deliver from ‘Lying Flat’ in the international arena?], Tencent News 腾讯新闻, July 15, 2022, https://view.inews.qq.com/wxn/20220715A07OGZ00?.

67 A good example of this kind of audio-visual material is a video uploaded to Bilibili showing a man traveling around on a cart made out of bed (as we would like to call it, his “bedmobile”), so he can go anywhere without having to get up. For more of this video, see Zhujianqiang jqsg999 猪坚强jqsg999, “Henbaoqian! Nimen yi zhezhong fangshi renshi wo 很抱歉!你们以这种方式认识我” [Sorry! That you get to know me in this way], Bilibili Video, 0:29, June 16, 2022, https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1eU4y1X7p8?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=88b4032a1345e733622dd9e1c5df6db7.

68 For more of this video, see Yige caixiang 衣戈猜想, “Huicun santian, erjiu zhihaole wode jingshen neihao 回村三天, 二舅治好了我的精神内耗” [Returning to my village for three days: my Second Uncle cured my internal mental friction], Bilibili Video, 11:26, July 25, 2022, https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1MN4y177PB?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=88b4032a1345e733622dd9e1c5df6db7.

69 Chinese culture has a complicated family tree system. Erjiu 二舅 here means your mother’s second oldest male sibling. 二 means second and 舅 means maternal uncle, hence the “second uncle.”

70 Jenni Hokka and Matti Nelimarkka, “Affective Economy of National-Populist Images: Investigating National and Transnational Online Networks through Visual Big Data,” New Media & Society 22, no. 5, (2019): 6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zixuan Zhang

Zixuan Zhang earned his M.A. in Translation and Interpreting at Newcastle University in November 2015, and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in rhetorical studies at Shandong University. He is also a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages of Shandong Jianzhu University. His research interests are in rhetoric, media discourse, and cognitive linguistics.

Ke Li

Ke Li, is a professor at Shandong University. He earned his Ph.D. in rhetorical studies from Shanghai International Studies University. He was a visiting scholar at University of Colorado Denver from February 2015, to February 2016. His research interests are in rhetoric, cognitive linguistics, and basic linguistic theories of English and Chinese.