Increasingly frustrated by their career prospects, China’s workers are likening themselves to various animals to blow off steam
Capybaras, monkeys, dogs…China’s netizens’ propensity for capturing their standing in the world via animal memes knows no bounds. While tech companies once promoted “wolf culture (狼性文化 lángxìng wénhuà),” defined by long hours, sacrifice for the good of the company, and unwavering struggle for the best outcomes, jaded young workers are now more likely to refer to themselves as “corporate livestock (社畜 shèchù)” or “office oxen and horses (上班牛马 shàngbān niúmǎ).”
The corporate livestock label has been around since 2019 but recently found new life under the hashtag “Stop calling yourself livestock (不许再叫自己牛马了 bùxǔ zài jiào zìjǐ niúmǎ le)” on the microblogging platform Weibo. Here, netizens bemoan how their plight is apparently on par with, if not worse than, that of working animals: “High-quality livestock get a one-day break for every day worked, while high-quality workers push themselves to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week (优质牛马上一休一，优质打工人拼007 Yōuzhì niúmǎ shàng yī xiū yī, yōuzhì dǎgōngrén pīn líng-líng-qī),” one Weibo user wrote on May 30.
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