Tang ping (躺平, pinyin tǎng píng, “lying flat”) is Chinese slang for opting out of overwork and relentless competition: working less, spending less and meeting only basic needs. Dictionary.com defines the English “lie flat” as “to reject overwork and withdraw voluntarily from relentless competition and pressure to achieve,” first recorded in 2021.
Origin
- 2016: Luo Huazhong, a former factory worker from Jiande in Zhejiang, left his job and cycled roughly 2,100 km from Sichuan to Tibet, then lived frugally on odd jobs and savings (Wikipedia).
- April 2021: Posting on Baidu Tieba as “Kind-Hearted Traveler,” Luo published an essay titled “Lying Flat is Justice,” likening himself to the Greek philosophers Diogenes and Heraclitus (Wikipedia). Dictionary.com notes the post went viral in China before the government removed it.
- May 2021: State news agency Xinhua published an editorial asserting that lying flat is shameful (Wikipedia).
- 2021: The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered online platforms to “strictly restrict” posts on tang ping and had censors remove Luo’s original post (Wikipedia).
- October 2021: An article by Xi Jinping in the Communist Party journal Qiushi called for avoiding “involution” and “lying flat” (Wikipedia).
How It’s Used
People who “lie flat” may reduce their working hours and spend less while still covering their needs (Wikipedia). The term is usually framed against China’s “996” work culture, which The Christian Science Monitor describes as the expectation that employees work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. The same report says online calls to “lie flat” or tangping and do the minimum resonated widely on social media, and that the phenomenon caught Xi Jinping’s attention.
In English the phrase travels as a stance as much as a lifestyle. Dictionary.com quotes a January 7, 2022 post by @solarpunk2050: “antiwork/lying flat is the beginnings of post-capitalist enlightenment.”
Related Terms Compared
| Term | Script / origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Tang ping | 躺平, China, 2021 | Lying flat: deliberately doing the minimum and opting out of the rat race |
| Neijuan (involution) | 内卷, China | Competition that intensifies while the rewards stay flat or shrink; the pressure tang ping reacts to |
| Bai lan (“let it rot”) | China, a newer related phrase | To actively embrace a deteriorating situation rather than trying to turn it around |
| Quiet quitting | United States, 2022 | Doing only what one’s job demands and nothing more; thought to be inspired by tang ping |
Definitions in the table follow Wikipedia’s tang ping article, which also compares lying flat with the Great Resignation, a surge of resignations that began in the West at roughly the same time.