China’s work culture, which prioritizes hard work, long hours and stressful workplace dynamics is receiving pushback from young members of the workforce. 

Disheartened by a weak economy, young people are employing tactics they refer to as  “lying flat” and “letting it rot,” terms used to signify a reduction in effort or even leaving the workforce entirely. This is frustrating Chinese leaders and upsetting an already fragile economy.  

The Wall Street Journal reported on this trend and interviewed University of Michigan School of Information associate professor Silvia Lindtner, an expert in technology, innovation and China. 

“It’s a very passive form of resistance,” Lindtner says. “It’s definitely a very difficult moment, but it could also be seen as a hopeful moment where there is pressure, in some ways, on the leadership.”

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Silvia Lindtner has published numerous research items on China’s shifting position in the global political economy of technology production, economic development and science and technology. Read her book “Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation” and visit her UMSI faculty profile to learn more.