XPost: alt.education, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, soc.culture.china   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: china.bidens@irs.gov   
      
   On 21 Nov 2021, No COVID Lies  posted some   
   news:sneg2j$ebb$58@news.dns-netz.com:   
      
   > China does not care about the 20%.  If they die, they don't eat.   
      
   The trouble began in April. That month, Chinese government data showed   
   that one in five young workers—between the ages of 16 and 24—was   
   unemployed, a record high. The next month, it was even worse. The problem   
   is likely to just metastasize over the coming months: Another 11.6 million   
   graduates will leave college in June to a dearth of job openings and a   
   stumbling economy. China’s Gen Z is just like America’s, only much more   
   burned out and with slim economic hopes.   
      
   The economic data from the world’s second largest economy is grim reading.   
   Key economic indicators such as retail sales, manufacturing, exports, and   
   investment are still growing, but not meeting the sky-high expectations   
   proclaimed in the immediate aftermath of the country’s reopening from   
   COVID-zero. A surprise plunge in exports in May now means that China is   
   trading less than this time last year—when Shanghai, its busiest port, was   
   in the middle of a two-month lockdown.   
      
   Worryingly, China’s youth unemployment rate is surging even as the overall   
   unemployment rate holds steady. Urban unemployment stood at 5.2% in May,   
   while youth unemployment was four times higher at 20.8%.   
      
   China’s work culture is famously tough, especially in the tech sector.   
   Internet companies there are renowned for the so-called 996 working   
   culture: working from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, six days a week. Some young   
   Chinese have even left professional careers for lower-paying manual labor   
   to get out of the country’s tough offices. The surging youth unemployment   
   rate suggests they’re opting out entirely.   
      
   President Xi Jinping has resorted to several appeals to young workers to   
   roll up their sleeves and adopt a patriotic hard work ethic, encouraging   
   the young to “eat bitterness”—a Chinese term that connotes grit and   
   enduring hardship—to succeed. In July 2021, at the 100th anniversary of   
   the Chinese Communist Party, Xi said that young people have a   
   responsibility to “rejuvenate the nation,” just like their ancestors did,   
   which involved working tirelessly and struggling even.   
      
   But a look at Chinese youth culture shows a “moonlight clan” that is   
   “lying flat” and does not want to eat a “lunch of suffering.” Take a look   
   at China’s Gen Z and the major struggle of their young careers.   
      
   'A piece of blank paper'   
   The dearth of job openings is fueling a sense of disillusionment among   
   China’s young.   
      
   Photos of graduates slumped on the ground, or throwing away their degrees,   
   or digitally inserted in front of a burning building litter the country’s   
   social media, as young Chinese joke that their time spent in higher   
   education was wasted.   
      
   Employers are reportedly turning away qualified graduates, fearing that   
   China’s extended lockdowns under COVID-zero have prevented university   
   students from getting important skills and work experience.   
      
   “They said I’m a greenhorn. In the words of my interviewer, I am a piece   
   of blank paper without any actual work experience,” Connie Xu, a 22-year-   
   old graduate who has been hunting for jobs, told the South China Morning   
   Post earlier this month.   
      
   China’s social media-savvy youth have come up with several new terms to   
   describe the drudgery of everyday working life. There’s the years-old   
   phrase “lying flat,” which long predates the U.S. term “quiet quitting,”   
   for the idea of just doing the bare minimum to get by and rejecting social   
   expectations. There’s the “moonlight clan,” young people who spend their   
   paychecks on small luxuries rather than save for an unattainable standard   
   of living.   
      
   Even food is seen through a lens of ennui and absurdity: “white people   
   food” was recently trending on Chinese social media with photos of Western   
   cuisine such as ordinary sandwiches, cucumbers and carrots, as office   
   workers reject the full meals of Chinese cuisine in favor of a “lunch of   
   suffering” at their desks.   
      
   What’s causing China’s youth unemployment?   
   In the immediate term, China’s sluggish post-COVID economic recovery is   
   worsening the youth employment situation.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)