In China, concept of doing nothing has the Communist Party worried

Sunset in China, where young people increasingly feel like doing not a great deal, in a trend called "tangping". Photo: Fan Jiashan/SIPA Asia via ZUMA Wire/dpa

The desire to simply drop everything and do nothing is so prevalent among young people in China that now there's a name for it: "tangping", or "lying flat". And the government isn't happy.

People who subscribe to this way of life refuse to take part in the performance-oriented and consumer society in which they are expected to work long hours at an exploitative job and constantly buy things.