By Oiwan Lam
Content notice: This article contains mentions of suicide and mental health issues. Some discussions could be triggering for some readers.
A new buzzword, “the garbage time of history” (历史的垃圾时间), has gone viral on the Chinese internet after the suspected suicide of a 30-year-old female investment banker.
On social media, rumours circulated that the woman jumped down from her company office in Shanghai due to the psychological pressure of salary cuts, heavy housing mortgages and the economic losses caused by the housing market dive.
A time to exit or lie flat
Originally, the term “garbage time” refers to the end of a timed sports competition when the result has already been determined. The Chinese term “garbage time of history” refers to the ending period of a regime or a political and economic system.
The incident with the investment banker is seen as an allegory of the inevitable destiny of society’s “players” during the “garbage time of history”, which means no matter how hard one plays, the person is doomed to failure because of the time.
The Chinese buzzword was coined by Hu Wenhui, a well-known mainland Chinese writer, back in September 2023 in his blog post, “Garbage Time of the History, Long Vacation for Culture” (历史的垃圾时间，文化的悠长假期).
Hu came up with the idea after he reviewed the history of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1964–1982) when the USSR was racing with the US in space and nuclear technology advancement. The writer believed that the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 marked the doom of the Soviet regime, and after that, the USSR entered the “garbage time of its history”. He also asserted that similar “garbage times” could be found in the dynasty history of China, as seen in the fall of Tang (marked by Huang Chao’s Rebellion 875–884) and Ming under emperor Chongzhen (1627–1644).
Hu then addressed the question: How should ordinary people navigate life during history’s “garbage times”? Here is his suggestion:
Hu’s article has prompted a series of conversations on social media. In November 2023, a writer, Qing He She Zhang (清和社长), wrote a response to Hu and elaborated the idea of the garbage of time of history by citing views and theories established by scholars of economic history, including Ludwig von Mises and Angus Maddison. The writer argued:
However, Qing He She Zhang added weight to the repression of culture during the garbage time of history:
More joined the discussion. In early 2024, another blogger, Xi Ge, argued that individuals could attain certain autonomy during the garbage time era by maintaining a healthy body and an optimistic and resilient spirit, building a mutual support community, and taking action within one’s ability and capacity.
Some social media users connected the term to another buzzword, “involution” (內卷), which is an anthropology concept to describe a closed economy that relies on the intensification of its production mode or the increase of input and thus results in an inefficiency of per capita output. In China, the term describes labour exploitation and vicious competition. For example, a film scriptwriter, Zeng Ming, wrote on Weibo:
In recent months, more and more social media users have picked up the new buzzword to discuss the never-ending barrage of negative news, such as the suspected suicide of the investment banker, the sliding stock market and the imploding property bubble. Many see the death of the bank worker as a tragedy representative of this rough patch in history, and finance bloggers warned their readers to make cautious investments during this “garbage time of history”.
Nationalist critics: A dangerous and vicious concept
As the term went viral, opinion leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stepped in. Wang Wen, a finance professor and a columnist for the Chinese state-owned Global Times, lambasted the invention of what he called a “fake academic term”:
Wang is the author of the book “Great Change of the Century” (百年变局), which addresses the global political, economic, and technological trends with the prediction of the decline of the Western political system and the rise of Asia. He argued that the current period is “the critical time of history” rather than “the garbage time of history”. However, he also acknowledged that the viral term had reflected the public sentiment during the current economic downturn.
Online nationalists have been more aggressive in criticising the term. For example, a commentary written by Ming Shu (明叔), a nationalist writer, on Netease, a popular news outlet, accused those who pick up the term as supporters of a Colour Revolution which advocates for regime change:
Despite the criticisms, social media users continue using the term to describe their pessimistic sentiment in the face of an economic downturn. Ironically, some online nationalists, including Ming Shu himself, also picked up the term to describe the decline of the US as the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump went viral on Chinese social media. The new buzzword is quite useful, after all.
—
This post was previously published on globalvoices.org under a Creative Commons License.
***
From The Good Men Project on Medium
 What Does Being in Love and Loving Someone Really Mean? |
 My 9-Year-Old Accidentally Explained Why His Mom Divorced Me |
 The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex |
 The Internal Struggle Men Battle in Silence |
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—–
Photo credit: zhang kaiyv on Unsplash
The post Chinese Social Media Users Call This Age “The Garbage Time of History” appeared first on The Good Men Project.