“I have a car, a house—everything a man should have, including erectile dysfunction and insomnia. If happiness and time are the two axes of a graph, then I’m afraid that the curve of my life has already passed the apex and is on its inexorable way down to the bottom.”
Navigating Time and Existence
In a profoundly reflective narrative, this short story delves into the life of a middle-aged man whose existence encapsulates the quintessential modern dilemma: the pursuit of material success at the expense of personal fulfillment. Sent to Lijiang, a place that once symbolized tranquility and natural beauty, he confronts a reality where authenticity has succumbed to automation and artificiality. This setting becomes the backdrop for an exploration of time, happiness, and the human condition—a narrative that resonates deeply with contemporary Chinese society, in particular the current generation caught up in the rat race and the so-called 996 mentality (referring to working from 9am to 9pm for six days a week).
The Illusion of Progress
The protagonist’s journey is a poignant critique of a societal obsession with productivity and efficiency, symbolized by his unwitting participation in an experiment aimed at compressing his perception of time. This treatment, designed to enhance work output by altering subjective time experience, mirrors the broader societal push towards maximizing efficiency, often at the cost of personal well-being and happiness. The story’s exploration of time sense dilation therapy offers a stark contrast—revealing a world where the wealthy can afford to stretch their moments of leisure.
The Cultural Backdrop: 内卷 and 躺平
The narrative captures the essence of neijuan (内卷) or involution, a term that reflects the internal spiral of relentless competition and the exhaustion of perpetual achievement. It paints a vivid picture of the pressure cooker environment that is the lived reality for many, driven by deeply ingrained values of filial piety and collective responsibility. Against this backdrop, the emergence of tangping (躺平), or lying flat, has popped up as a counter-movement, embodying a rejection of societal pressures in favour of a minimalist, laissez-faire approach to life.
Finding hope in disillusionment
Despite the bleak portrayal of the protagonist’s reality, the author’s perspective offers a glimmer of hope. It invites readers to question the true cost of societal and technological advancements on individual happiness and societal well-being and encourages a reevaluation of our relationship with time, success, and each other. The acknowledgment of suffering and disillusionment in a rapidly transforming society is not an endpoint, but a catalyst for change. In his words:
“I am not filled with despair and gloom for the future of China. I wrote about the suffering of a China in transformation because I yearn to see it change gradually for the better.”
