Instead of even trying to chase jobs that seem out of reach, Gen Z is embracing living like a rat—not showering or leaving the house for days at a time.

Instead of even trying to chase jobs that seem out of reach, Gen Z is embracing living like a rat—not showering or leaving the house for days at a time.

The millennial era of “work hard, play harder” and “girl bossing” has given way to a new trend. In China, at least, Gen Zers are proudly calling themselves “rat people”—they’re spending entire days procrastinating in bed, scrolling on their phones, snoozing and ordering take out.

I think it has something to do with “giving up” on the economy: if you have very low chances of landing a job anyways, why even try?

The article does not directly tell us how many people participate in this movement consciously. It does hint, however:

Today, over 4 million American Gen Zers remain jobless. In China, the government has said that as of February, 1 in 6 young people are unemployed.

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    One of the animals in the Chinese year is the rat. I don’t think that there is a “satirical level of disrespect” if the animal is that important.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      3 days ago

      If anything the zodiac contributes to misunderstanding of animals. It’s like saying in the west we understand the buffalo because we have Taurus as a horoscope.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        3 days ago

        “Americans hate cows because they don’t understand them, as evidenced by this foreign language article that compares Americans to cows”

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          Nah Chinese culture is very well known for this. Have you been living under a rock?

          Chinese treatment of animals is beyond anything else I’ve ever seen. There’s just fundamental lack of education and respect for non-human creatures. It’s trully something else and I’m not being xenophobic here as it’s an objective truth.

          Even for a country with strong Buddhist and taoist presence it’s almost impossible to find vegetarian food unless you go to "sùshí restaurants (special vegetarian restaurants near temples) and outside if that you’ll get straight up mocked for eating vegan.

          Seriously, my least favorite thing about China. Even worse than whole censorship thing. It’s just so incredibly disrespectful to our fellow creatures to the point where it feels intentionally cruel.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
            1·
            1 day ago

            Chinese treatment of animals is beyond anything else I’ve ever seen.

            I agree with you…but do you really think America or most of the West would be much better if not for modern animal rights activists?

            Modern industrial society has such a wild disconnect from its food, and I don’t think most people would care if not for the likes of PETA et al always bringing to the front of their attention.

            Myself and my kids are ovo-/lacto- vegetarian. My wife is full blown vegan. We raise a small flock of chickens for eggs and my oldest (2nd grade) loves our hens like members of the family.

            You know how some of the kids bully him? By saying they’ll come to our house and eat our chickens. I think even a second-grader would know not to say that about a dog…but a chicken? Not even a thought. Even his therapist wasn’t disturbed by that until I told her that the chickens are treated more like pets than livestock.

            And they should be treated better. They are beautiful, diverse creatures with their own social rules and personalities. You haven’t lived till you’ve gotten stoned and hung out with a flock of hens for a few hours.

            • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 day ago

              I do agree that activism is required here and it maybe China is really stuck at progressing here as activism is basically illegal. The one case of animals activism that I know (posted in another comment) is zoo employees rising up against awful zoo conditions and animal torture and anti shark fin soup lead by Yao Ming and some other pop stars.

              Animal activism just doesn’t really exist in China and it really might be the only way to progress this medium.

              I’m honestly quite disappointed in Buddhism here. Chinese follow Mahayana branch of Buddhism (same as Japan, Vietnam etc.) Which aims to “help all beings to achieve buddhism” and yet animal rights are non existant and they perform all these rituals of releasing a fish or smt but never do any real action. Just shows how deeply rooted this issue is.