The English-language adoption of China's "tang ping" movement: a deliberate decision to opt out of hustle culture by doing only what's necessary to live, refusing extra hours, declining promotions and reducing material ambitions. Picked up by Western journalists and TikTok creators from 2021 onward, "lying flat" became a useful umbrella term for a cluster of related stances — quiet quitting, the lazy girl job, snail girl era — that all reject the assumption that career advancement should be life's organising principle. Some commentators frame lying flat as a soft labour protest, others as a personal mental-health strategy; in practice both readings overlap.
I'm lying flat for at least a year — minimum effort, no LinkedIn updates, just enough work to keep the lights on.
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