The term 摆烂 (bǎi làn) is one that captures a literal etymological representation of chinese youth. Breaking down the hanzi, “摆” (bǎi) means to deliberately place/lay/arrange, and “烂” (làn) refers to mushy, rotten, or decayed. Putting it together gives the meaning of 摆烂 (bǎi làn) as “let it rot” or “to display rottenness.”
The first recorded use of bǎi làn came from Chinese NBA fans as their own version of slang for the English word “tanking” to describe NBA teams purposely losing and performing poorly in hopes to gain better odds of securing top player picks.
https://www.douyin.com/video/7368463371538042166 (above is a preview of the douyin post)
Here is a post of a netizen on Douyin making fun of how one NBA team, Detroit Pistons, had continuous poor performances, being one of the worst NBA teams, and despite many years of securing top picks in the draft are still performing terribly, and as such are continuously “tanking” and are the best when it comes to it.
Origins of ‘Bai Lan’
However the use of the modern, non-niche, usage of the word actually arises as a more extreme/severe evolution of another chinese slang, 躺平 (tang ping) which translates to “lying flat.” The tang ping movement can be seen as the predecessor to the modern bǎi làn, since this first movement was seen as a first grassroots passive-aggressive movement in the youth of their grievances against the Chinese government and societal expectations like the overworking, and overachieving in 996 working hour system that was considered an endless “rat race”.
https://chi.st/bugs/tang-ping (some excerpts from the recovered blog)
Here is a preservation of the original blog, “Lying flat is justice” that sparked the initial tang ping movement that was deleted by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The blog, by Luo Huazhong, who said he has come to terms with him not living up to society’s expectations and wanting to live his life the way he wanted to. So he quit his factory job, biked miles from Sichuan Province to Tibet and decided he could get by on odd jobs and $60 a month from his savings, calling his lifestyle 躺平 (tang ping). Lou’s blog served as a message to other Chinese youth on how they have the agency just like him to reject the rate race, intense work culture of the 996 system, and societal expectations, saying “the moment when a life full of desire and excitement becomes still and disappears is the embodiment of true justice. I choose to lie flat, and I am no longer afraid.” This blog went viral before it was deleted and sparked all manner of memes by netizens, which glorified/encouraged the tang ping lifestyle, expressing their desires to simply go and “lie flat” instead of engaging in the constant rat race.
These memes led to the emergence of the catchphrase, 躺平的韭菜不好割 (Tǎng píng de jiǔcài bù hǎo gē), which translates to “a chive lying flat is difficult to reap”; this is a humorous take of the “chinese dream” portrayed by state media which netizens believe is a false promise of a better life for the price of endless hard work with no actual internal satisfaction. This movement is very similar to a similar movement in the US, called “quiet quitting” which advocated for doing the absolute bare minimum at one’s jobs and simply getting the money and then leaving. This sense of apathy and doing the absolute bare minimum, and “lying flat” to the rat race is echoed perfectly in Tang Ping.
Evolution to ‘Bai Lan’
However the change from ‘tang ping’ to ‘bai lan’ is the result of a more extreme version of the same movement.
This became particularly apparent during China’s recovery period post COVID during from 2021 to 2022 where China’s frequent lockdowns led to a very sluggish economic recovery, exacerbating youth unemployment and making basic necessities like education, healthcare, and housing unaffordable for increasingly unaffordable for young people.
In the eyes of the youth netizens, their conditions and outlook had only gotten worse and ‘tang ping’ couldn’t save them anymore. Now the message evolved from originally being apathetic and indifferent to societal and cultural expectations. The message instead became a willing rejection of the degrading quality of life for youth given the government’s inability to fix the high youth unemployment, cost of living, and extreme pressure from constant competition, giving birth to ‘bai lan.’ Additionally, it also serves as a coping mechanism from the youth since many realize that their current conditions suck, so they are living life embracing the ‘rot,’ not caring what others may think since they feel as if nothing could be worse than right now, actively reflecting cynicism. ‘Bai Lan’ had now become the perfect unfiltered symbolism of the outlook and condition of the youth, true ‘rot’.
Videos promoting the ‘bai lan’ lifestyle are subject to heavy censorship on social media platforms, as a result, videos of individuals actively promoting the lifestyle rarely make it past the strict censorship by the CAC. As a result, netizens resort to spreading it via memes featuring drawings with a caption, which tend to be harder for the censorship algorithms to detect.
https://www.douyin.com/note/7331525838585744679 (above is a preview of the douyin post)
This post by a netizen was captioned 最近状态躺平摆烂,混吃混喝,只想做个快乐的小废物, translating to “Let it rot. Lately I’ve just been lying flat and letting things rot, mindlessly indulging eating and drinking. I only want to be a happy little good-for-nothing.” Posts like these reflect the true inner reflection and vulnerability of bai lan movement as it goes beyond the previous tang ping where it was largely apathy, and now serves as public projection and revealing of the real inner feelings of cynicism and vulnerability of Chinese youth that they feel can only be shared through the anonymity that social media offers.
Why?
The emergence of Bai Lan from Tang Ping actively acknowledges the dreadfulness of the lives of the Chinese youth and attempts to play off the ‘rot’ in a sarcastic and self-deprecating manner with a sense of cynicism, and memes serve as the perfect medium for netizens to spread their message on social media. Its evolution from an earlier movement serves as a key indicator of slang in social media, especially China, that functions as both a cultural mirror and a coping mechanism, reflecting youth disillusionment through a unique gen-z way of humor and self-aware irony.
