Tang ping

Tang ping (Chinese: 躺平; pinyin: tǎng píng; lit. 'lying flat') is a Chinese slang term for a personal rejection of societal pressure to overwork and over-achieve, such as in the 996 working hour system. Tang ping means choosing to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" by adopting a "low-desire life." Novelist Liao Zenghu described "lying flat" as a passive-aggressive resistance movement, and The New York Times called it part of a nascent Chinese counterculture. It has also been compared to the Great Resignation, a surge of resignations that began in the West at roughly the same time. The National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, affiliated with the China's Ministry of Education, listed the phrase among the ten most popular memes on the Chinese Internet in 2021. Those who choose to "lie flat" may lower their professional commitment and economic ambitions, prioritize psychological health over economic materialism, and simplify their goals, while still being fiscally productive to meet their essential needs. The phrase "quiet quitting", meaning doing only what one's job demands and nothing more, which became popular in the United States in 2022, was thought to be inspired by the tang ping movement. Another newer related phrase is bai lan (Chinese: 摆烂; pinyin: bǎi làn; lit. 'let it rot'), which means "to actively embrace a deteriorating situation, rather than trying to turn it around". Basically, it refers to a voluntary retreat from pursuing certain goals because individuals realize they are simply too difficult to achieve. An extreme version of lying flat dubbed "rat people" (Chinese: 老鼠人; pinyin: lǎoshǔrén) had surfaced in 2025. In 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China mandated that social media platforms censor expressions of lying flat and other "negative worldviews".