No girlfriend, no savings and a poorly-paid job: Zhao Jun is typical of the diaosi (屌絲), or “losers,” who have been left on the sidelines of China’s decades-long economic boom.
According to a survey by Peking University and a Chinese social networking site, 72.3 percent of diaosi are dissatisfied with their lot.
There are no official figures for this marginalized group, but the term could apply to tens of millions of Chinese.
Originally from Jiangsu Province in eastern China, Zhao, 30, has a degree from Harbin University of Science and Technology, but only earns 3,000 yuan (US$500) a month working for a design company.
Eight years after moving to the capital, “I live in a basement apartment in western Beijing and pay rent of 500 yuan a month. I haven’t saved anything since everything is so expensive here,” he said.
According to the survey carried out in September last year, the typical diaosi — who can be male or female — spends less than 39 yuan on their three daily meals, uses a cheap Chinese smartphone and is single, with 37.8 percent reporting feeling depressed.
Of those with jobs, 68.6 percent work overtime every day. Many seek refuge in sleep or alcohol and leisure time is typically spent playing video games online while swigging cheap beer and chainsmoking cigarettes that cost US$1 a pack.
Beijing-based Sinologist Renaud de Spens has given the word diaosi a prominent slot in this year’s edition of his Cheeky China Dictionary.
The literal translation of the word is “penis hair” (male pubic hair), but as a slang term “it refers to the failures, those who are both ugly and poor, those who are unmarriageable,” De Spens wrote.
One Beijing diaosi nicknamed “A Qi” shares a room in a 1950s red brick building, the type built to accommodate an influx of migrants from the countryside and now often so decayed they are being demolished for redevelopment.
“Diaosi means we have no money,” said A Qi, who recently quit his job at a publishing company. “I felt depressed when I walked into the office every day and told myself I couldn’t continue.”
He tried to start an online business on Taobao — the Chinese equivalent of eBay — but failed again. Now, disillusioned, he wants to leave the capital.
A banner in the entrance of his building reads: “Follow the Party, realize the Chinese Dream,” a propaganda phrase popularized by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
In a country where the definition of success is a career, home ownership and marriage, the term diaosi was first coined pejoratively on the Internet.
It has online opposites that represent all it is to be at the top of the Chinese social pyramid: Men should be gaofushuai (高富帥) — tall, beautiful and rich — while women should be baifumei (白富美): rich, beautiful and fair-skinned.
Yet the diaosi are now seeking to reappropriate the word, in the same way that ethnic or sexual minorities in the West have taken possession of former insults.
The term has become a rallying point for some, symbolizing their rejection of the frenzied consumerism of China’s economic boom, which they can only watch from the sidelines.
“The large number of Chinese who define themselves around this concept shows how self-deprecation and a counterculture are developing,” De Spens said.
“The [diaosi] affirms his pride in being neither a senior official nor a rich kid — in the Chinese imagination, officials and rich kids don’t do a damn thing,” he added. “As such, he retains a moral integrity in the face of a society that seems to him to be plunging into an abyss of materialism.”
Now, though, there is a backlash to the backlash.
In a microblog post that was forwarded tens of thousands of times, film director Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛) decried as “brainless” those who call themselves diaosi.
Even party mouthpiece the People’s Daily weighed in last month.
The tendency to “self-denigrate” should “be denounced and abandoned, because it can cause serious harm to the spirit of youth,” the newspaper warned.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
RSS