Is there a word for "lying flat" in English?

Recently, "Lying Ping" has become the hottest online word on the Internet.

I checked it online and found that no matter what the other party does to you and what kind of attitude it takes, you will not react or resist in any way, indicating obedience, and there will be no waves in your heart.

Through my observations, the birth of "Lying Ping Culture" is closely related to two other concepts: "Inner Roll" and "Cut Leek".

"Involution" refers to the fact that everyone is tired of competition, constant internal friction, exhaustion, and ultimately nothing.

"Cut the leek" is an old term. It probably means that your time, energy, physical strength, money, and even intelligence are constantly being harvested by the power party.Then the core logic of "Lying Flat" is that as long as I lie flat, the inner curl will not be able to curl me, and the sickle will not cut me.The inventor of this term is an unknown grassroots blogger, but the Laiping culture has aroused a lot of resonance among the people.Today, regardless of whether lying flat is right or wrong, I will focus on how to translate in English.

Several English-language media have also reported this phenomenon, from Sixth Tone, the English version of Caixin.com, and Reddit. Let's see who has the best expression:

Sixth Tone is an English-language media that focuses on reporting on China. The main headline says:

Tired of Running in Place, Young Chinese ‘Lie Down’

Translation: Tired of standing still, young Chinese choose to "lie flat."

Here, run in place means "running in place", which is a metaphor for hard work but no progress or growth.

"Lying Ping" was literally translated as lie down, because foreigners would definitely not understand it, so the author added quotation marks and added a subtitle.

The subtitle interprets lie down as "the'Why try hard when you can just skate by?' mentality".

The skate by here is an English phrase that means "to get through something difficult with ease" (to get through something difficult with ease), which is similar to "get through and pass" in Chinese, but it's quite like "lie flat".

Let's take a look at the report on "Caixin.com English Edition":

Trending in China: Young Chinese Reject Rat Race, Embrace ‘Lying Flat’

Translation: Chinese fashion trend: young people refuse to compete and embrace "lying flat".

The translation of "Lying Flat" in this title is unremarkable. It is only a literal translation of "Lying Flat", but the wonderful thing is that by contrasting with the previous rat race, foreigners can understand "Lying Flat" in seconds.

Rat race is an English idiom that means "an exhausting, usually competitive routine" (a kind of exhausting, competitive routine).

It can be seen that rat race is the opposite of "lying flat"-isn't it inward rolling?

The author uses the words reject and embrace to contrast rat race and lying flat so that foreigners can roughly understand them.

Finally, let’s take a look at a post on Reddit, an influential overseas forum, which provides us with a new perspective on translating "Lying Ping":

the word “Lie flat” 'lie flat' or 'couch potato' is trending in china right now, the word connotes … however hard you work you cannot achieve life-long goals, so better become a “couch potato”.

Translation: The term "lie flat" (lie flat or couch potato) is currently a popular trend in China. The term implies that no matter how hard you work, you can't achieve your goals, so it's best to become a couch potato.

The author has been using the couch potato to help overseas readers understand "lying flat".

Couch potato is also an English idiom, which literally means "couch potato".

The explanation on the American Slang Dictionary (Urban Dictionary) is:

a lazy person who does nothing but sit on the couch and watch television.

Translation: A lazy person doesn't do anything, only knows to lie on the sofa and watch TV.

Look at the example sentence given in the dictionary:

Please don't lie around like a couch potato. Get up and do something productive.

Translation: Stop slumping on the sofa, stand up and do something meaningful!

It can be seen that the couch potato is indeed the "lying flat family" in English culture.

Finally, combining the above three media, we can get a more reliable translation, which is to use literal translation first, then combine free translation, and finally find a similar English idiom to explain.

— What is “tang ping”?

— Well, “tang ping” literally means lying flat. It reflects a mentality that young people adopt to reject rat race. Since trying hard can't get what you want, you’d better choose to skate by and become a couch potato.

I believe that with such an explanation, foreigners should be able to understand the concept of "lying flat".

Do you agree with "lying down"? What do you think of this culture?