“Lying Flat” and “Involution”: A Sociological Study of Job Burnout and Social Mentality of Contemporary China Youth

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmsd.202612222

Author(s)

Yiwen Wang

Affiliation(s)

(Jinghu Campus): Qunxian Middle Road No.2801, Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China

Abstract

In the contemporary China society, where material conditions continue to improve, the contradictory picture of "the study room in the early morning of 985 colleges and universities" and "college graduates returning home to lie flat" reveals the general job burnout and extreme behavior coping of young people. Based on the theory of Existential Milestones [11], this study shows that the contemporary youth in China are facing the binary behavioral differentiation of "involution" and "lying flat", which reflects the general job burnout and the response to structural difficulties. Based on the existential milestone theory, this study constructs a three-dimensional framework of macro-structure, meso-situation and micro-individual [4], adopts semi-structured short interviews, and makes a cross-border comparison with Japan and South Korea [16]. It is found that "involution" and "lying flat" are the differentiated strategies adopted by young people when traditional life goals such as "education-employment-marriage-housing" are difficult to achieve: the former is the extreme competition within the system, and the latter is the active adjustment of passive retreat and rational resistance [14]. The particularity of China's youth lies in the coexistence and high individualization of these two modes, which reflect the complicated reality of the coexistence of opportunities and pressures and the collision between tradition and modernity in the period of social transformation. "Lying flat" is essentially a "limited resistance" under structural constraints, which is both an adaptive strategy and a silent protest against unequal rules. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of the changes in youth mentality and provide a basis for building an inclusive youth policy.

Keywords

Lying Flat; Involution; Existential Milestone; Youth Burnout; Qualitative Research; Social Mentality

References

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