Chinese youth term for people who reject the rat race
Buddha-like (), or fo xi using its Chinese pronunciation, is a buzzword used in China to describe young people who reject the rat race of contemporary workaholic Chinese society for a tranquil, apathetic life. The term is a neologism combination of two Chinese characters: "fó" (), meaning "Buddha"; and "xì" (), meaning "series" or "school". Young people who uphold the Buddha-like mindset are referred to as Buddha-like youths () or Generation Zen.
The term originated in a 2014 issue of the Japanese women's fashion magazine "Non-no" to refer to Japanese men who had progressed from being herbivore men to being monk-like men () who consider it too exhausting to even bother interacting with women and instead enjoy being by themselves. The term has also been applied to numerous areas, such as parenting, employment, online shopping, fandom, dating, and interpersonal relationships. Although the word is inspired by the Buddhist doctrine of becoming spiritually satisfied through giving up anything tied to avarice, it is not a Buddhist principle.
The "Buddha-like" label is primarily adopted by young Chinese men from the post-90s and post-00s generations referring to their less-than-optimistic life outlook, although some post-80s experiencing quarter-life crises also admit subscribing to the mindset. Stressed out by poor job prospects, decreased life satisfaction, increasingly stagnant social mobility, disappointing romantic life, familial complications of the one-child policy, and soaring housing prices, youths have adopted the term to maintain their fortitude and as a backlash against society's high expectations. For example, the adherents of Buddha-like parenting would say that "there are not that many kids who will really amount to much, so why give them an exhausting childhood?" Advertisers have also used the term to market their products. In the technology industry, the Buddha-like mindset is seen as promoting work–life balance and thus the polar opposite of the 996 working hour system. The Buddha-like mindset has been compared to the sang and diaosi subcultures in being a softer, more moderate instance of counterculture.
The term gained attention on 11 December 2017, when the WeChat account Xin Shixiang (, "New World Scenes"), which is operated by a media company, posted an article titled "The first group of post-90s generation who have become monks" (). It went viral and led to the term's widespread adoption in Chinese society as youth consider it in vogue. It summarised the Buddha-like mindset as "It's okay to have, and it's okay not to have; no competition, no fight, no winning or losing." The Chinese Communist Party has denounced the mindset as an unproductive, unpatriotic impediment to the country's ambition of becoming a superpower. Proponents have praised the mindset as relieving youths' stress and reducing resentment.
Etymology.
Origins.
The neologism "Buddha-like" or "foxi" () was used for the first time in a 2014 issue of the Japanese women's fashion magazine "Non-no". In 2006, the writer Maki Fukasawa coined the term herbivore men, which is a precursor to "foxi". Herbivore men have the qualities of being not only refined, frugal, quiet, and gentle but also unambitious, depressed, and pessimistic. Disinterested in accumulating material possessions and wealth, herbivore men do not care about forming relationships with women or having sex. They prefer spending time on their interests and with family. "Non-no" said that eight years following the coining of herbivore men, Japanese men have progressed into Buddha-like men (). Japanese commentators said the men's evolution to Buddha-like happened for multiple reasons, including Japan's economic weaknesses. A substantial number of men in their 20s and 30s live with their parents, who take care of them like children. This causes the men to not try creating their own family as that would entail taking risks like courting and being rejected by women. As Japan's patriarchal society is gradually being dismantled, women, after having developed stronger personalities, have become hard for men to manage, commentators say. Japan predominantly has single-sex schools, while in mixed-sex schools, boys and girls have limited interaction. This has caused young men not to be at ease with women. Men, who think it is unnecessary to have girlfriends, have grown to liking being by themselves. Buddha-like men live by the maxim that "Interest is the most important". Not wanting to spend time worrying about other people, these men enjoy being alone and doing things on their own schedule. Considering romantic relationships to be troublesome, Buddha-like men do not need girlfriends and find it exhausting to interact with women. Whereas herbivore men did not care about love or sex, Buddha-like men have evolved into being like monks who isolate themselves from women. Their behaviour is like the character Gautama Buddha in the Japanese comedy manga series "Saint Young Men". The phrase was used in the context of the "otaku" subculture to discuss men disinterested in having relationships with women and who were spending all their time on their career or hobbies.
On 11 December 2017, a Chinese media company posted an article titled "The first group of post-90s generation who have become monks" () on its WeChat account Xin Shixiang (), which had four million followers. The essay, which discussed Buddha-like youth, went viral, in two days receiving over one million views on WeChat and 60 million on Sina Weibo. It was the first time on Chinese platforms that the phrase "Buddha-like" became viral and led to the neologism's broad adoption in Chinese society. According to the scholar Jie Yang, the article was widely read by millions of viewers in China who connected with its message of living a Zen-like existence of being apathetic towards both wins and losses in life to confront the increased stress they feel from their community. Writing in a Chongqing University journal, Ouyang Zhao and Zhao Yangyang said that the media company's "use of strong appeal and sensational writing greatly promoted" the Buddha-like mindset and "caused widespread concern about the phenomenon". The article summarised the Buddha-like mindset as "It's okay to have, and it's okay not to have; no competition, no fight, no winning or losing." To illustrate the mentality, it described youths' being indifferent to the food they would consume at lunchtime so day after day they would eat identical meals. The essay catalogued several applications of the philosophy to everyday life: "Buddha-like passengers" (), "Buddha-like workout" (), "Buddha-like parenting" (), "Buddha-like online shopping" (), and "Buddha-like employment" (). Shao Shiwei, the chief marketing officer of the media company that made the viral post, said that they get hundreds of thousands of messages from their followers whose stories inspired the viral essay about Buddha-like youths.
Morphology.
The term is a concatenation of the word "Buddha" (, pronounced as "fo") and the word "series" (, pronounced as "xi"). The first word, "fo", references religious leaders like Sakyamuni, Amitabha, and Yaoshi or Buddha concepts like Buddhism, statues, and the sutra. The second word, "xi", is about "belonging to or relating to something". The combination of the two words forms a blended space. Although the phrase's original use was to discuss men, its usage in China is not confined to men.
Roots in Buddhism and Chinese culture.
Individuals use metaphors like "foxi" upon realising that existing words' plain definitions are unable to capture what they want to convey. Those who have a foxi mindset are not necessarily Buddhist adherents. The term is inspired by the Buddhist guidance to achieve satisfaction by forsaking anything tied to avarice. But instead of being focused on the religious teachings, the Buddha-like mindset recommends having a "laissez-faire" view on living. According to Xuecheng, the Buddhist Association of China's president, the Buddha-like mindset is not rooted in the dharma's teachings. Xuecheng said the mentality is from apathy inspired by deprecating oneself when one lacks agency. He stated that "the Buddha-like mindset has its predicaments. Escape is not the solution. One can say 'let it be' whenever one wants, but one must face reality and be a responsible person." "Buddha-like" reflects Chinese culture's "dualistic spiritual model of 'being out of the world/entering the world'" even though it has its roots in another country. People online generally refer to the youth as "Buddha-like young people" (). Buddha-like youth primarily refers to Chinese people in the post-90s generation and also refers to people in the post-00s generation.
Social context.
Mainland Chinese youth born in the 1990s find it challenging both career-wise and romance-wise. The youngsters are burdened by high academic and career expectations because of China's one-child policy. Like people born in Generation X in the United States, the post-90s youth probably have tough prospects of leading a life as good as their parents did, scholar Jie Yang wrote. The youth face soaring home purchase costs. With men massively outnumbering women, it is challenging to form relationships. They believe that social mobility ceased being prevalent after the post-80s established themselves in their careers and in life. The youth consider social mobility to be nonexistent in which it is improbable and expensive to rise up the socioeconomic ladder when born to a family that is not well-off. To complain about their plight, the youth facetiously say they are Buddha-like youth. They jokingly refer to themselves as "prematurely balding", "monks or nuns", "divorcees", and the "middle-aged obese". Those with Buddha-like mindset adopt catchphrases like "anything will do", "let it be", and "take life as it is". They embrace the saying, "Life itself is hard enough, and we just can't afford to make it harder on our own." When asked a question, the youth typically respond with "okay" or "sure". The difficulties of life have caused the youth to deem themselves to be that way despite none of those attributes applying to them. Their response is a backlash against the highly ruthless jobs market and the culture's relentless focus on high salaries. According to Tian Feng, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research fellow, this is rooted in China experiencing very quick growth which leads to numerous transformations. Tian said that it was predictable that Chinese youth would embrace this "self-mocking subculture", which would percolate on the Internet. Xu Hua, a professor at the School of Sociology and Political Science at Anhui University, said that by adopting the "Buddha-like mindset", youth can remain "calm and flexible", allowing them to, in the course of time, assume increased duties.
Youth in Hong Kong have adopted the Buddha-like mindset as they face a similar plight of no longer having the social mobility opportunities their parents had. In 2020, the average Hong Kong home cost HKD$9.72 million (US$) while Hong Kong male workers in the last quarter of that year had a median monthly income of HKD$20,000 (US$). This meant that it would take a median male worker's entire income of over 40 years of working to pay off a house. Feeling that purchasing the expensive property is out of reach, Hong Kong youth adopt the Buddha-like mindset of not fretting over buying property. The youth also suffer from insufficient labour rights and too much competition.
Agility Research, a research firm based in Singapore, published a survey in August 2018 of well-off Chinese people born between 1995 and 2000 in which over half of them called themselves "Buddha-like youth". The National Language Monitoring and Research Center, a research center under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, listed "Buddha-like mindset" in 2018 as number four in its yearly "most popular" Internet slang list.
Usage.
In 2017, Chinese youth began extensively using the newly coined phrase "Buddha-like" or "foxi" as they consider it to be in vogue. The youth embrace the mentality of neither caring about achievements nor about getting evaluated by others. Escaping the rat race lifestyle, they aim to take actions that they want to do or believe are correct. When they encounter difficulties in life, a Buddha-like mentality enables the youth to experience a respite and liberates them from the concomitant pessimistic feelings. Proud of being associated with the term, the youth purchase attire embroidered with "Buddha-like mentality". On social media, they created stickers such as about "Buddha-like workers" with the caption, "Don't resign, don't change jobs, fate will come, naturally will become rich".
On 21 January 2018, the game Travel Frog, which was released by the Japanese company Hit-Point, reached number one in downloads in the "free app" category and was one of Sina Weibo's top queries. Its protagonist is a frog who travels in Japan and mails postcards and dainty