There is an online Chinese saying that goes: “Not getting to work or getting ahead, Chinese youths prefer getting blessed at the temples.”
According to Chinese media reports, data from travel websites show that travel bookings for temple visits have more than quadrupled year-on-year, with youths born after the 1990s and 2000s accounting for half of those bookings since February. As more Chinese youths catch the trend, the aforementioned self-deprecating line on the internet has also attracted the attention of Chinese media platforms.
Youths ‘going astray’
The Beijing News (《新京报》), a Chinese newspaper under the Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee, published a commentary on 21 March, criticising Chinese youths for “skipping school, being unmotivated, and preoccupying themselves with offering incense at temples”. It said that if young people pin their hopes on gods, it is obvious that they are “going astray” when “the true colour of youth is to struggle”.
Unsurprisingly, the commentary immediately drew the ire of netizens and triggered a backlash. Offended youths spoke up on various platforms, and made the topic Weibo’s top search on 21 March.
That same evening, Beijing Daily (《北京日报》), the official newspaper of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee, also published an article on the topic. It urged people to understand what the youths are praying for instead of worrying about them offering incense. In a bid to calm the nerves, the article sympathised with the youths’ immense pressure on entering the workforce and explained that they are offering incense to reduce stress.
Netizens could not help but wonder why the simple act of offering incense managed to rouse the attention of two state media platforms. Is the issue really that complicated?
Offering incense equals not wanting to get ahead in life?
It is clear from netizens’ comments that Beijing News drew the ire of youths because it equated “offering incense” with “skipping lessons and being unmotivated”, and exaggerated the act of making a wish to the level of “pinning one’s hope on the gods”.
Although the article acknowledged the various challenges faced by the younger generation, such as “studying for a higher degree, finding a good job and getting out of singlehood”, as well as offering incense being a way for youths to “relieve pressure and recalibrate focus”, it spared more effort condemning praying as unsound and pointless. Essentially, it tried to talk sense into youths who have “gone astray”.
While the Chinese state media wants to curb the spread of “feudal superstitions”, netizens will see them as disconnected and arrogant...
But to young Chinese people, the article was a bowl of “toxic chicken soup” that reeked of diewei (爹味). The term diewei was originally used as a satire on self-centred middle-aged men, and is now used to criticise uninformed and overearnest people who can’t wait to educate others and give directions.
The countless tips for offering incense and making blessing bracelets on Xiaohongshu, a popular social media platform among Chinese youths, are proof that going to the temples has indeed become a trend.
While the Chinese state media wants to curb the spread of “feudal superstitions”, netizens will see them as disconnected and arrogant if the media indulges in harsh criticism of the youths while ignoring their psychological needs. A popular online comment responded by saying: “You talk about sacrifice but not our salaries; you talk about improvements but not our benefits.”
Netizens also say that if the state media writers would pay some attention to the social media accounts of the youths, they will realise that most of the youths are in fact praying for academic success, career advancement and wealth. As a popular phrase on the internet goes, “No one visits Yue Lao [the god of marriage and love] but everyone kneels before the God of Wealth.”
... they are just unable to “get ahead”, which is why they have turned to offering incense and praying to the gods for comfort.
That is to say, Chinese youths are practical people. They do not want to "lie flat" or adopt “Buddha’s ways” (佛系). They are also not without realistic pursuits or are unwilling to get ahead in life. In fact, they are just unable to “get ahead”, which is why they have turned to offering incense and praying to the gods for comfort.
Offering incense takes nothing, but living life takes everything
A viral comment encapsulates the reason why Chinese youths love to offer incense: “God never asks if I graduated from a ‘Project 985’ university; or if I am above the age of 35; or if I am married with children.”
Indeed, these are the three problems that Chinese youths face in the workplace today: discrimination in education, age and gender.
China’s universities produce a growing number of graduates every year but the slowing economy is keeping the job supply significantly below demand. The latest data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on 15 March showed that in the first two months of the year, the average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.6%, but the unemployment rate for young people aged between 16 and 24 was as high as 18.1%.
Chinese youths who can't find a job choose to further their education, driving up the number of master’s and doctoral students every year. The growing number of highly educated youths also worsens the “educational involution”. Even the much envied graduates from Project 985 and 211 universities (China’s top universities) are feeling the pressure, with occasional reports of some of them resorting to babysitting or delivery jobs, what more those who graduated from ordinary universities or vocational schools.
A week ago, state media such as CCTV also came under fire by netizens for criticising the “Kong Yiji literature” popular among young people and urging university graduates who cannot find jobs to “take off Kong Yiji’s long-sleeved shirt” — i.e. to stop acting high and mighty — and get a basic job. (NB: “Kong Yiji literature” is a reference to a short story by Lu Xun, where the protagonist Kong Yiji is a pretentious self-styled scholar who is not respected and comes to a tragic end; the phrase encapsulates the frustration of going to university and not being able to get a job that one likes.)
Also, while being included as “young people”, the oldest of the post-90s group is 33 years old this year, just two years away from the “career watershed” of 35. Their most urgent worry is whether they can make their mark before being left behind when they reach “old age”.
On this basis, female job-seekers face even tougher gender discrimination. To prevent them from going on maternity leave and getting benefits soon after getting hired, many women are asked whether they are married and whether they have children, and might be rejected outright because they are married with no children. With a shrinking population and the state encouraging childbirth, as well as the three-child policy, women who have one or even two children would face the same discrimination.
... but before the gods, everyone is equal as long as they are sincere. So, it is not surprising that prayer is a way for young people to relieve stress and escape discrimination.
In the course of life, young people fall into their respective lanes, but before the gods, everyone is equal as long as they are sincere. So, it is not surprising that prayer is a way for young people to relieve stress and escape discrimination.
Besides workplace discrimination, the economic and mental impact of the three years of the pandemic, as well as the burdens of taking care of children and the elderly, and saving for one’s own retirement, are all real challenges that make young people anxious. The Beijing Daily article acknowledged and empathised with all this, and managed to calm emotions to some extent.
The article said that there was no need to equate young people’s sudden fascination with Buddha’s ways to pessimism and retreating from the world. Going to the temple to pray does not mean they are “asking Guanyin to appear”; sometimes it is just a spiritual release.
The article said, “Praying in the morning doesn’t delay taking the subway to ‘shift bricks’ (搬砖, meaning doing laborious work with little pay). Who doesn’t pray while working hard?”
The article also said that besides individual effort, social support is needed for young people to get through their struggles, and called for society to pay more attention to young people and give them a fuller stage and more space to show their talent. However, some netizens also criticised this as being “airy fairy” and avoiding the real issue with sentimental talk while not offering solutions.
Another response also surmised that if working hard could resolve problems in life and give one at least a decent living — if not make them rich — “then who would go and pray?”
Young people cannot take any more ‘chicken soup’
One popular comment on zhihu.com was that going to the temple to pray seems like a choice made by young people, when in fact it is a choice forced on them by the times.
It added that the quiet, peaceful atmosphere of well-being in the temple gives the illusion of escaping from reality, which for young people is a form of healing from mental strain and an effort to recover from stress and anxiety. Also, young people pray to gods and follow the Buddha’s ways because fewer things can be changed through effort, even with academic qualifications.
Another response also surmised that if working hard could resolve problems in life and give one at least a decent living — if not make them rich — “then who would go and pray?”
A netizen wrote that if they were still in secondary school, they would feel ashamed at seeing such mockery and pull themselves together and keep fighting. But to those who have been battered by life, in the face of harsh reality, these expert suggestions and media commentaries are just politically correct tripe, and may even be “toxic chicken soup” that gives people unrealistic expectations.
From Kong Yiji literature to young people praying, Chinese media has been critiquing young people’s behaviour and trying to take the lead, only to crash and burn almost every time. It shows the unprecedented pressure that young people in China are facing, and that the authorities should be careful in offering platitudes before coming up with solutions.
Young people themselves cannot see a solution in reality either. They offer a prayer at the temple and hope that what they want will happen, which is a solace — this is simply a helpless form of self-regulation.
This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “中国年轻人上香求什么？”.
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