Speaking at the “future — southern — youth” forum organized by the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Graduate Student Association on Monday last week, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), a NCKU alumnus, asked the 140 students in attendance what kind of person they wanted to be.
More than 40 percent of them unexpectedly said “tang ping” (躺平) — a buzzword originating from China that literally means “lie down flat.”
One of the reasons students gave for the response was the high cost of buying a home in Taiwan.
Many young Taiwanese do not aspire to buy a home, a vehicle or many consumer goods, and have no plans to get married or have children. They do not intend to work any harder than what is needed to support a minimum standard of living, because they think that no matter how hard people work, their salary would be low and never increase enough to catch up with sky-high home prices and the rising cost of consumer goods.
That being the case, what is the point of working hard?
For them, the old advice that “as long as you work hard, you will succeed” is no longer worth listening to.
Home prices in Taiwan are indeed very high — so high that salaries are left far behind. Some people win without trying because they were born to the right parents and inherit a home, but for many of those who cannot buy a home even after slaving away for decades while going hungry, it is understandable that they give up hope.
They might as well lie down flat. After all, if everyone chooses to do so, property prices might even start to fall.
Frankly, who are we to say whether young people’s way of thinking is right or wrong?
In my case, I have been working for 15 years, but although I have joined the middle class, it would be extremely hard for me to buy a home from my own income alone. My salary has only gone up 10 percent over the past five years, while home prices have risen three times as fast.
Consequently, my real income has nowhere near kept up with soaring house prices. If I put down a deposit on a home, I will be a “mortgage slave” for the rest of my life.
It would be better to stay single, treat myself a bit better and allow myself to spend some money on little pleasures. I could spend it on personal leisure and interests, or invest it in learning new skills. When you see it like that, lying down flat does not necessarily mean admitting defeat.
When Lai saw how many of the young generation advocate lying down flat, he assured the students that Taiwan has a hopeful future.
He encouraged them to care about international society, look ahead and pursue their dreams.
However, Taiwan’s falling birthrate and the trend of lying down flat are national security crises.
To have any hope of maintaining Taiwan’s competitive edge, the government must take the bull by the horns, and propose clearer and more convincing policies.
To do so would not only bolster national security, but also give young people a future worth dreaming about.
Dino Wei is an information engineer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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