Chinese youth are pretending to be birds on social media as they don't want to study, work: Report

Most of the users who followed the trend are either students or young professionals. (Image credit: @babelfish.asia/Instagram)

Youngsters in China have been pretending to be birds in a new social media trend of protesting against the country's infamous "996" system, which forces employees to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Video platforms, such as TikTok, have been flooded with videos of young men and women tucking their bodies into oversized t-shirts, perching on  furniture, flapping their "wings" and even chirping, Babelfish Asia reported.

The idea behind "being a bird" is to be free from spending long hours studying or working. Most of the users who followed the trend are either students who are tired of the rat race and are dreading the job market conditions when they graduate or young professionals who are sick of the 996 culture that makes them work for 72 hours a week.

“Youth is but a summer dream,” a user wrote, while another "chirped" a song of his own: "Can't help but turn into a stubborn bird, against the wind to the end." A third user said in the video, "I don't want to work, I want to be free like a bird."

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This, however, isn't the first time that the youth in China have vented their frustration with the country's work culture on social media. In 2022, the term "bai lan" (let it rot) began to trend widely. According to Dazed, the concept originated in the NBA video game community. It refers to the practice of intentionally throwing a match when the chances of winning are slim, but it has since grown to display a growing discontent with the Chinese work culture.