What’s in a buzzword? Room for debate
Print Edition
THE attitudes of young people matter in China because they exert heavy influence over the consumer market and social habits. And one way into their thinking are the buzzwords that go viral online.
Most recently, online lingo has attached labels like “Buddha style,” “disheartened” and “mid-aged maidens” to young people. The terms have caused lively discussion.
Take “Buddha style” as an example. The term originated in Japan, where it was used to describe young people with low motivation — young people who don’t care if they secure a good job or worry about what will happen in the future. Their “drifting-along” attitude was likened to Buddhists.
Many Chinese young people, however, see the term differently. They view a “Buddha-style” attitude as one rejecting trivial or material things in life, while striving for excellence in matters of importance.
Nebula Guo, who studied architecture at a Shanghai university, says he partly supports a “Buddha-style” lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean he is pessimistic or lacks drive.
Guo chose to work for a virtual reality start-up company in Beijing before becoming a product manager at one of the largest online retailers in China.
“I just don’t care about the minor things of life, like food and clothing,” he says. “There’s a good deal of stress in my work and I want to pay more attention to meaningful things.”
Photographer Soleil Shen, 24, agrees.
He views himself as Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, depicted as the “ever victorious in battle.”
Shen has been working free on a documentary about his favorite singing group in his spare time. Despite several failures and setbacks in his career, he maintains a calm demeanor toward the vagaries of life, an attitude that could be termed “Buddha style.”
“Though I take results as they come, I still spare no effort in my work,” he says. “For me, not letting myself down is more important than anything.”
But to a 24-year-old woman who identified herself only as Bella, a “Buddha-style” attitude implies sloth and pessimism.
“I am not the fan of this terminology because I think ‘Buddha-style’ youths tend to be indolent and apathetic,” she says. “It would be very tiring to make friends with those people. I prefer to keep a casual attitude toward senseless things and concentrating on what’s important.”
Another buzzword, “disheartened young people” or sangxi qingnian, is definitely more ... well, disheartening.
The term refers to those who distrust positive thinking, believing that nothing better will come to pass no matter how hard they try.
In Shanghai, a milk-tea shop themed on “disheartenment” quickly became a heated topic online despite the fact that it lasted only four days.
Each paper cup in the shop carried sayings of frustration: “It’s not true that you have nothing to lose. There’s still illness.” “Don’t worry, you’re the fattest among your friends.” “Do you want a cup of water that tastes like the rest of your life — all bland?”
The milk-tea shop was so popular with some youngsters that people had to queue for hours to get a cup of tea, served by somewhat weary-looking baristas.
Meanwhile, an Internet celebrity cat named Mao Ri also went down well with people. The forever frustrated-looking ginger cat created hundreds of “disheartenment” memes that spread online. The cat’s official account on Weibo, one of China’s largest social networking sites, has gained more than 610,000 followers.
But does the hoo-ha over “disheartenment” really signify that many young people have lost hope for the future?
Dahlia Chen, a 28-year-old urban planner, says she loves the “disheartenment” memes, which she has posted all over her WeChat Moments. But she is not happy when people label her as one of the “disheartened.”
“In my opinion, the ‘disheartenment’ meme is just a mild way of self-mockery,” she says. “Everybody needs a getaway. While some people love to encourage themselves with positive thinking, others choose to mock themselves to release stress. It’s different from self-pity, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t expect things to change for the better.”
In fact, Chen says she believes that the “disheartenment culture” helps people learn how to accept reality, which is probably a good thing.
“The real world is much tougher than people think,” she observes. “The ‘disheartenment culture’ might help people get a better balance between reality and the pretty bubble created by overly positive thinking.”
Chen says she might best be described by another buzzword: “mid-aged maidens.” The term refers to young women, mostly born in the 1990s, who have started to show signs of middle age, such as paying closer attention to health, seeking relationships with younger men or suffering from hair loss.
“I don’t loathe the term the way some people do,” Chen says. “I think some of the features of ‘mid-aged maidens’ are quite positive. There’s nothing bad about paying attention to health or wanting relationships. I don’t know why some people would think that’s a sign of getting old.”
Psychologists say buzzwords, especially “Buddha style,” actually reveal deep-seated anxieties that sometimes occur after young people graduate and have to face the responsibilities of jobs and possibly marriage and children.
A therapist with the online mental health advice platform xinli001.com, who calls himself only “Antenna,” says that people born in 1990s have mostly moved on from the “honeymoon period” of entering society. Most of them have witnessed and experienced failures and struggles, maybe for the first time in their lives. It causes them to seek refuges that give them peace of mind.
“They still have ambition and purpose in life,” he says. “But they begin to realize that they need to adjust their attitudes, to reduce conflicts in work and in relationships. It is a sign of self-acceptance, and it is actually good for their mental health.”
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