{"id":44874,"date":"2022-05-26T10:33:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T01:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/may\/26\/the-rise-of-bai-lan-why-chinas-frustrated-youth-are-ready-to-let-it-rot"},"modified":"2022-05-26T10:33:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T01:33:50","slug":"the-rise-of-bai-lan-why-chinas-frustrated-youth-are-ready-to-let-it-rot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=44874","title":{"rendered":"The rise of \u2018bai lan\u2019: why China\u2019s frustrated youth are ready to \u2018let it rot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phrase bai lan gains popularity as severe competition and social expectations leave many young people despondent<\/p>\n<p>Early this month China\u2019s president Xi Jinping encouraged the country\u2019s youth to establish \u201cgreat ideals\u201d and incorporate their personal goals into the \u201cbigger picture\u201d of the Chinese nation and people. \u201c\u2018China\u2019s hope lies in youth,\u201d he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.cgtn.com\/news\/3d3d414d31637a4d34457a6333566d54\/index.html\">major speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But on China\u2019s internet, some young people say their \u201cideals\u201d simply cannot be achieved and many of them have given up on trying. Frustrated by the mounting uncertainties and lack of economic opportunities, they are resorting to a new buzzword \u2013 bai lan (\u6446\u70c2, or <em>let it <\/em><em>rot<\/em> in English) \u2013 to capture their attitude towards life.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/may\/26\/the-rise-of-bai-lan-why-chinas-frustrated-youth-are-ready-to-let-it-rot\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phrase bai lan gains popularity as severe competition and social expectations leave many young people despondentEarly this month China\u2019s president Xi Jinping encouraged the country\u2019s youth to establish \u201cgreat ideals\u201d and incorporate their personal goal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2096,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-china"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44875,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874\/revisions\/44875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}