[Inside Chodong] 'Lying Chive' Shakes the Chinese Government: The Tangping Movement

An image depicting the Tangping generation, which is trending on the Chinese internet. It features the Tangping generation's motto, "A lying chive cannot be cut." [Image source=Weibo]

Recently, the word receiving the most attention on the Chinese internet is undoubtedly ‘Tangping.’ Literally, it means "lying down confidently." In South Korea, it is commonly used as a term encompassing the youth generation who have given up on employment, marriage, childbirth, etc., like the ‘N-po generation’ or Japan’s ‘Satori (さとり) generation,’ but its actual meaning is somewhat different.

The Tangping group in China does not simply refer to people who have escaped from social realities like the N-po or Satori generations. Rather, it refers to people who are lying down in protest, demanding strong social reform. The term ‘lying chive,’ used on the Chinese internet to describe the Tangping group, carries a strong meaning of social resistance.

Here, ‘chive’ refers to the ‘Post-90s (九零後, born in the 1990s)’ generation, a powerful investment group that has driven the rapid rise of the Chinese stock market. Whenever the stock market overheats and the Chinese government implements various overheating suppression policies to cool down the market, these people continue to challenge it, resembling chives that keep sprouting even after their tops are cut off with a knife, hence the nickname.

However, these chives have stopped sprouting and have begun to lie down. On the internet, the Tangping group repeatedly chants the phrase "lying chives cannot be cut." Their manifesto is that by no longer investing, working, consuming, or marrying, and by continuously resisting society, the unfair world will eventually be overturned. Since the Chinese society’s emphasis on personal effort and social advancement is no longer achievable for the youth, their goal is to make the government realize the severity of youth unemployment and social inequality through passive resistance by doing nothing.

Especially as youth unemployment in China has surged, the Chinese government cannot ignore the Tangping movement. Since April, the youth unemployment rate in China has exceeded 20%, and the government has even stopped officially announcing the figures from July due to the severity of the situation. Amid analyses suggesting it has already surpassed 40%, dissatisfaction and resistance among the youth are growing significantly.

Some express concerns that the Tangping trend could have an explosive impact similar to the ‘Qingtan (淸談)’ thought in late 3rd century China. Qingtan was a trend among young aristocrats during the Western Jin (西晉) dynasty, which unified the Three Kingdoms period, who opposed the existing Confucianism riddled with corruption and hypocrisy by refusing to enter public office and living a secluded, artificial life.

The problem is that the outcome of Qingtan thought was very tragic. As the youth refused public office, military service, and production, resisting the regime for decades, the Western Jin dynasty faltered in military, administrative, and economic aspects, eventually leading to the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms rebellion, where nomadic groups such as the Xiongnu and Xianbei invaded all over China. Major cities centered around the Yellow River region were destroyed, and tens of millions of people perished.

Considering the current situation where tensions with the US and the West are intensifying, even though this is a history from 2,000 years ago, there is no guarantee that such a tragic history will not repeat itself. The despair and resistance of the Tangping group are drawing global attention as to what great winds of change they might bring to China and the broader Northeast Asian geopolitical landscape, including South Korea.