Buddha-like mindset

Buddha-like (Chinese: 佛系), or fo xi using its Chinese pronunciation,^[1][2] 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" (Chinese: 佛), meaning "Buddha"; and "xì" (Chinese: 系), meaning "series" or "school". Young people who uphold the Buddha-like mindset^[3][4] are referred to as Buddha-like youths (Chinese: 佛系青年)^[4] or Generation Zen.^[5][6][7]

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 (Japanese: 仏男子) 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?"^[1] 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 (Chinese: 新世相, "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" (Chinese: 第一批90后已经出家了). 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."^[8] The Chinese Communist Party has denounced the mindset as an unproductive, unpatriotic, impediment to the country's ambition of becoming a superpower.^[6][9] Proponents have praised the mindset as relieving youths' stress and reducing resentment.