According to Bloomberg, a lifestyle known as “rat people” has recently become popular on Chinese social media platforms. Many young people are sharing videos showing their lifestyle of rarely going out, not working, and spending their days lounging in bed. Topics related to “rat people” on Weibo have surpassed tens of millions of clicks.
In a widely circulated video, a young woman shared her “rat people daily routine”: waking up at 11:20 am, eating takeout at 1:20 pm, continuing to nap at 2:00 pm, having bubble tea in the evening, feeding her cat, then returning to bed, eating dinner, watching shows, and going back to sleep around 2:30 am. She concluded the video by saying, “How can anyone be this happy?”
This lifestyle attitude is seen as a continuation of the “lying flat” culture, a way to escape the high-intensity work and social competition pressure. With the backdrop of a slowing economy and high youth unemployment rates in China, more and more young people are choosing to opt out of the “struggle warrior” battlefield and enter the “slacking off” mode.
An online article pointed out that videos of “low-energy rat people” bloggers have replaced the previously popular “high-energy refined life” videos, becoming a new traffic code on social platforms. Influencers on platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu, such as “Jiawen Sishi” and “Happiness Rat Record,” attract a large following using the “rat people” tag. One blogger’s video has garnered over 400,000 likes, with the comment section filled with remarks like, “This is real life.”
This phenomenon has also created commercial opportunities. The cartoon character “Big Rat” created by the artist “Sugar Fairy Shell” has become the emblematic emoji of rat people and has driven the sales of related peripheral products to soar. Brands have collaborated with the artist to release products such as plush toys, keychains, and pillows, with sales exceeding millions, and some items are already out of stock.
“Rat people” typically exhibit three main characteristics: they are active at night, lethargic during the day, and energetic at night; their living space is limited to a corner of their room, but they react sensitively to sudden events; and they prefer to conserve social energy, tending towards online interactions and being fearful of facing crowds.
The label “rat people” also encapsulates the sense of powerlessness and psychological anxiety that contemporary young people feel towards real-life. Many express a contradictory mood of “being lazy yet wanting to change” in a somewhat joking manner.
What are your thoughts on this trendy phenomenon of “rat people”?