Young Chinese are fighting against society through a simple act of resistance: lying down. Examples of the “tangping”, or “lying flat”, way of life     1     (include) not getting married, not having children, and refusing to work extra hours or to hold a job at all. “I stay at home and sleep and watch television series.” said Zhang, who described herself as “lying flat” for the last two weeks     2     leaving her job in the film industry in Wuxi.

“Tangping”     3     (emerge) over the last few months. Some compare them to the 1950s Beat Generation in the United States.     4     (other) call their behavior a form of nonviolent resistance. “People realize there is no upward mobility,” said Yicheng Wang, a PhD student in political science at Boston University. The term developed after     5     April post on the Tieba forum, whose author, unemployed for the last two years, described a low-effort, low-cost lifestyle consisting of just a few months’ work out of the year.

“Lying flat is my movement,” he     6     (write), referring to the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who was known for living in a large container. He posted a picture of himself lying in bed in the middle of the day with the curtains     7     (draw).

But as “tangping” gained     8     (popular), it also brought a level of dishonor. Nanfang Daily called the philosophy “shameful”. Global Times made light of it describing “lying flat” as “not a serious philosophy”.

For Zhang in Wuxi, lying flat is not about giving up or withdrawing from society. “Many people want to lie down because 996 is too     9     (tire), ” she said, referring to the constant hours common in tech industry,     10     the staff are expected to work from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. , six days a week. The philosophy is also about giving oneself a break.