After reading the article below, please design two follow-up tasks for twelfth graders to do. The first task
should be designed based on the content of the article. The second task should help students explore the
issue(s) related to the article. You are encouraged to include the following elements in your answer: objective,
length, activity, and expected outcome In April 201, a post with the title “Lying Flat Is Justice” was published on Chinese social media. The writer, 31-year-old Luo
Huazhong, declared that he was done with being ambitious and seeking the expected middle-class life of having kids, a house,
and a high-ranking job. Instead, he said he found it much more satisfying to “lie flat” and live a simple life without steady work.
The post clearly struck a chord with other Chinese youth, as forum discussions about lying flat soon flourished across China’s
web platforms and put a name to the desire to quit the modern-day rat race.
Lying flat can be seen as a response to the relentless nature of modern Chinese society. The government has put its hopes in
its younger citizens to “rejuvenate the nation” and work hard in service of growing the economy. Led by tech giant Alibaba,
China’s highly competitive technology sector adopts a work model known as “996”—working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a
week—as a way to boost productivity. However, this unyielding corporate culture has bled into other industries and put unbearable
pressure on young workers across urban China. Employees who can’t keep up are fired, and high performers are rewarded only
with more work.
In addition to this brutal work culture, the nation’s cost of living has continued to rise, but wages haven’t kept up. Housing
costs in Beijing rose 115% from 2013 to 2019, while disposable income per person saw only a 66% rise. Such grim numbers
have made it hard for many young people to imagine ever being able to buy a house or support a family. With seemingly nothing
in their future but endless work and struggle, some see lying flat as their only alternative.
It’s not only in China that lying flat has emerged as a social concern—this phenomenon can be seen with young people all
across East Asia. In South Korea, young adults have been wrestling with overwork and financial struggles for years. The term
sampo, meaning “giving up three”, was coined in 2011 to describe young Koreans who are giving up on dating, marriage, and
having kids. This term has since been upgraded to opo, “giving up five”, and ultimately n-po, “giving up to the nth degree,”
reflecting exhaustion with the expectations of modern life. Just as in China, housing prices have skyrocketed, and steady
employment has been difficult to find. Social and gender issues are also at the heart of this “giving up” philosophy. Young women
observed how their mothers couldn’t have kids without forsaking their professional lives, so they prefer not to get married or
have children at all.
In Japan, where work pressure has been a problem for many years, the term for young people experiencing this kind of social
fatigue is satori sedai—the “enlightened generation” or, more cynically, “resignation generation.” Different from Japan’s
hikikomori, who shut themselves entirely away, those who identify themselves as satori sedai participate in society but have no
desire for material luxuries. This baffles their elders, who grew up in a thriving consumer culture. Satori youth also feel pessimistic
about their future opportunities, as they believe most of Japan’s resources will be spent tending to the country’s large elderly
population rather than advancing younger people’s prospects.
Whether it’s the ruthless 996 culture, gender-related social pressure, or housing prices making home ownership out of reach,
East Asia’s young people have many reasons to want to lie flat. It will take substantial change to make these exhausted youth
believe that they have other options available to them.
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