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BUDDHIST YOUTH TAKE IT EASY
Irreligious millennials embracing unambitious -average lives.
BEIJING : While their country's leader has encourages citizens to work harder and dream big, some Chinese millennials are declaring their allegiance to the 'art of being average'.
Nicknamed ''Buddhist Youth'', these young people have embraced a lassez-faire approach to life which has more to do being chilled out than reading sutras.
''Life is quite tiring,'' said the 23 year old Guo Jia, who believes being a Buddhist Youth means ''accepting the things you cannot change and going with the flow.''
As a viral Chinese social media post outlines this month, behaviors associated with the largely irreligious Buddhist Youth include eating the same food every day-
Allowing one's romantic partner to make all the decisions and being devoid of strong feelings about virtually everything.
They are latest in a string of subcultures to achieve online fame in China -with labels like ''greasy uncles'', a type of pompous yet slovenly middle-aged man, to ''cultured youth'', the Chinese equivalent of a hipster.
Some of these labels have been condemned by authorities, but Buddhist Youth have been greeted appropriately -with indifference.
When Guo first arrived in Beijing, everything -from working at his finance job to riding the subway -made him anxious.
Like many of the nation's young strivers, he came to the capital eager to meet the high expectations he had set for himself.
But more than a year later, he has found peace in letting things be.
''I haven't been able to stop caring about everything,'' Guo said, ''but these days I am generally calm and unperturbed. It is enough to just be content with life.''
Such declarations are curious in Xi Jinping's China, where the president has endeavoured to rally young people in particular around the notion of the ''Chinese Dream.''
''A nation will be prosperous if its young generation its ambitious and reliable,'' Xi said in 2013.
But years of a strict one-child-policy and a rapidly developing economy have placed great pressure on young people to succeed academically and get ahead professionally.
Now some of them are happily resigned to being ordinary.
''I am just about average in everything I do,'' said Wang Zhaoyue, a 24 years old masters graduate.
Irreligious millennials embracing unambitious -average lives.
BEIJING : While their country's leader has encourages citizens to work harder and dream big, some Chinese millennials are declaring their allegiance to the 'art of being average'.
Nicknamed ''Buddhist Youth'', these young people have embraced a lassez-faire approach to life which has more to do being chilled out than reading sutras.
''Life is quite tiring,'' said the 23 year old Guo Jia, who believes being a Buddhist Youth means ''accepting the things you cannot change and going with the flow.''
As a viral Chinese social media post outlines this month, behaviors associated with the largely irreligious Buddhist Youth include eating the same food every day-
Allowing one's romantic partner to make all the decisions and being devoid of strong feelings about virtually everything.
They are latest in a string of subcultures to achieve online fame in China -with labels like ''greasy uncles'', a type of pompous yet slovenly middle-aged man, to ''cultured youth'', the Chinese equivalent of a hipster.
Some of these labels have been condemned by authorities, but Buddhist Youth have been greeted appropriately -with indifference.
When Guo first arrived in Beijing, everything -from working at his finance job to riding the subway -made him anxious.
Like many of the nation's young strivers, he came to the capital eager to meet the high expectations he had set for himself.
But more than a year later, he has found peace in letting things be.
''I haven't been able to stop caring about everything,'' Guo said, ''but these days I am generally calm and unperturbed. It is enough to just be content with life.''
Such declarations are curious in Xi Jinping's China, where the president has endeavoured to rally young people in particular around the notion of the ''Chinese Dream.''
''A nation will be prosperous if its young generation its ambitious and reliable,'' Xi said in 2013.
But years of a strict one-child-policy and a rapidly developing economy have placed great pressure on young people to succeed academically and get ahead professionally.
Now some of them are happily resigned to being ordinary.
''I am just about average in everything I do,'' said Wang Zhaoyue, a 24 years old masters graduate.
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