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Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode, I'll be talking to

journalists, experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.

There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well. How do the Chinese see these issues?

Recently, a couple of new Chinese phrases have made it into the mainstream on social media.

Together, they describe a new sense of despair that Chinese millennials and zoomers are feeling

as work and life pressures become too much in the unending competition of modern China.

What does this phenomenon say about the ever-widening generation gap between millennials and their parents today?

And what happens to China's social contract if the young workforce doesn't feel that the government is delivering higher standards of living?

These are the questions I discussed with Beijing-based journalist Caroline Kan in this episode.

You might have come across her book, a memo about her life and family called

Under Red Skies, Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China, which I review for the

Spectator two years ago. Caroline, welcome to Chinese Whispers. The two phrases that I'm talking about,

of course, are Tang Ping, to lie flat, and Neueun, Involution. First of all, can you explain what Tang Tang Ping to lie flat and Nejuan, Involution.

First of all, can you explain what Tang Ping or to lie flat means?

Lying flat basically means, it's more like a life attitude.

It's like, of course, from like literally it means just lying down,

maybe in the sofa impact impact shows like you are not

very willing to go out of work to participate in the how I'll say it's a competition working

hard or study hard that used to be considered as a right attitude in Chinese culture that you should work hard,

you should study hard, be ambitious, was always considered to be the right attitude.

But the young generation said, no, we don't want to do that anymore because it's too difficult

...