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By Claire Fu and Daisuke Wakabayashi
Report from Seoul
When the weather turned cold in December, Cindy Luo started dressing in her fluffy pajamas over a hoodie in the office. Wearing comfortable sleepwear for painting has become a habit, and soon you didn’t even bother to wear matching tops and pants, opting for what maximum comfort.
A few months later, he posted photos of himself in a thread about “rude clothes at work” that had spread on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese Instagram-like app. She is one of tens of thousands of young employees in China who proudly posted photos of themselves in the office in overalls, sweatpants and sandals with socks. The newcomer seems oddly casual to most Chinese workplaces.
“I just need to put on what I need,” said Ms. Luo, 30, an interior designer in Wuhan, a city in Hubei province. “I just don’t think it’s worth spending money on dressing for work, since I’m just sitting there. “
Defying expectations of proper dress reflects a growing aversion among young Chinese to a life of ambition and effort that has marked the past few decades. As the country’s expansion slows and promising opportunities recede, many young people are choosing to “lie down. “”, a countercultural technique for seeking an undeniable and undeniable life. And now even those with solid jobs are holding a silent protest.
Deliberately boring outfits have become a social media movement when a user named “Kendou S-” posted a video last month on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister service. She showed off her painting outfit: a fluffy brown sweater dressed in plaid pajama pants with a pink quilted jacket and leather sneakers.
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