‘A rotten period of history’: Chinese state media denies claims country has entered new era | China

First there was the century of humiliation, in which China was subjugated by Western powers. Then there was the era of reform and opening up, when China’s rapid economic development paved the way for what was supposed to be the Chinese century. But today, according to social media users, , China is currently going through another era that deserves to be named: that of the garbage of history.

In recent weeks, Chinese chat rooms and WeChat feeds have been rife with discussions about whether China has entered a period of economic stagnation or regression in which failure is almost inevitable, dubbed “a garbage period of history.”

The sentiment can be summed up by a graph, widely shared on social media – and since censored on Weibo.

Called the “Grand Slam of Misery Ranking 2024,” it counts the number of misery points a person has earned in China this year. The first star is unemployment. To get two stars, add a home loan. To get a full eight stars, count the first two, plus debt, child education, stock market transactions, illness, unfinished housing, and finally, hoarding Moutai, a famous brand of baijiu, a sorghum liquor.

“Some say history is made of time to waste,” wrote one Xiaohongshu user who shared the graphic, along with self-care tips. “Individuals have no time to waste.”

The phrase is inspired by – and has been wrongly attributed to – Austrian free-market economist Ludwig von Mises, who opposed government intervention in the economy.

In February, Ma Xiangyang, a writer for The Economic Observer, a business journal, wrote an article that some analysts interpreted as a coded reference to the Xi era. “As far as Chinese history goes, the Ming Dynasty inaugurated by Zhu Yuanzhang is a typical ‘historical period of waste.’ He began his dream of empire with harsh punishments and harsh laws and wanted to protect the family name for generations. Objectively, this only lengthened the length and depth of this period of darkness,” Ma wrote. Zhu was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century.

Ma added that the ghost of “garbage times” was beginning to return to the “heart of Asia.”

The phrase has since become all the rage among Chinese people disillusioned with the country’s weak economy and increasingly despairing about the so-called “Chinese century.” In recent years, other phrases such as “lying flat on one’s stomach” and “involution” have become equally fashionable among young people who feel that society no longer rewards their efforts.

State media and some influential commentators have not welcomed the latest viral phrase.

Last week, Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies, a think tank at Renmin University, wrote an article castigating the “falsification of academic concepts.”

“A closer look at this pseudo-word reveals that it is more dangerous than the ‘flattening’ theory of recent years,” Wang wrote, referring to the phrase “a historically stupid period.” “It completely denies China’s current development situation and attempts to create public expectations that the country will eventually fail.”

The Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing branch of the Chinese Communist Party, also recently responded to this trend by publishing an article titled: “The Garbage Time of History? True or False?”

“Have there been ‘bad times’ in our history? This is a false proposition that does not deserve to be refuted,” the Beijing Daily author said in a 3,000-character article refuting the proposition.

Chinese authorities are increasingly concerned about the negative effects that could slow the country’s economic recovery. Social media users have been instructed not to “smear” the economy. Qiao Liu, dean of Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, recently gave a graduation speech in which he warned graduating students against “narrative traps” that China’s economy has reached its peak. The “garbage period of history” is one such trap, he said, according to a translation published by Pekingnology, a newsletter.

But some social media users are optimistic about their online presence in such a time. One Weibo blogger, who feared his account would soon be deleted because of an article he had posted about a recent food safety scandal, wrote a farewell message to his followers: “No matter what, I am very happy to spend the time of the garbage of history with you.”

Further research by Chi Hui Lin