October 15, 2024 — Recently, the news about young people in mainland China starting to raise slime molds as pets became a hot topic on social media, with related videos amassing over 3 million views. Some individuals interviewed by the media stated that they started raising slime molds due to "excessive work pressure" and wanted to "distract themselves." However, some netizens remarked that this reflects the deeply concerning mental state of today’s Chinese youth, describing it as "spiritually impoverished, tantamount to brain death."

At the same time, videos of young people running wildly or dancing erratically in hospital gowns at popular tourist spots during the National Day holiday went viral online. It was reported that before the holiday, searches for hospital gowns on Taobao skyrocketed, with daily sales exceeding hundreds, as people purchased them for photo ops. In fact, "crazy hospital gown tours" have become a new travel service offered by some vendors. Participants in these activities explained that they were using this behavior to "let loose and heal their 'damaged' mental state," with some saying, "Since going crazy, my mental state has significantly improved." Organizers mentioned that with the current difficult environment, people live stressful, exhausting lives, and participating in such activities can bring "happiness and stress relief."

Raising bizarre creatures as pets and dressing up as mental patients to engage in wild and crazy behavior to relieve stress have both become trends among young people, which is worrying. What exactly is causing them to experience "excessive pressure," feel their minds are "damaged," and label themselves as "insane"?

This brings to mind the trends seen during the lockdowns when university students began raising paper dogs and engaging in crawling activities on campus. In late 2022, university students locked inside their dormitories began to raise paper dogs, and around the same time, crawling around the track became a popular stress-relief activity at campuses nationwide. Students at the time were on the verge of being driven insane by extreme lockdown measures.

During the three years of lockdowns, omnipresent health codes restricted people's freedom, endless nucleic acid testing wore them down, and fears of being sent to quarantine camps or forcibly relocated were constant. The limitations on social interaction, loss of income due to unemployment, and even the return to a state of not being able to afford basic necessities severely damaged people’s mental health.

According to the 2023 China Mental Health Blue Book, "The prevalence of mental health disorders among the population is high, with a vast number of people affected." The data shows that 230 million people in China will experience a mental disorder at some point in their lives, with about 4,000 people developing anxiety disorders and 3,600 developing depression each year. As of 2022, the number of people in China suffering from depression had reached 95 million.

The "White Paper Movement" ultimately brought an end to the lockdowns, reigniting people's hopes. Many believed that life would return to normal once the restrictions ended. However, what followed was yet another winter of despair.

The hospitality, restaurant, and retail industries have struggled to recover since the lockdowns. The real estate sector has entered a deep freeze with no signs of recovery, tutoring and related industries that were severely cracked down upon have vanished, and the internet sector has seen massive layoffs. Foreign enterprises are exiting the market, and the foreign trade sector remains sluggish, leading to mass unemployment. Private enterprises have been suppressed and ruthlessly plundered, resulting in waves of bankruptcies.

The challenge of finding employment for university graduates has persisted for years. The number of people applying for civil service jobs continues to rise, while industries like delivery services, ride-hailing, and livestreaming are facing intense competition. The number of highly educated individuals is increasing rapidly, and what the CCP refers to as the "flexible employment" population is growing ever larger. After reaching a youth unemployment rate of 21.3% for those aged 16-24 in August 2023, the CCP stopped publishing this statistic. After redefining the metric to exclude students, the youth unemployment rate (for ages 16-24) reached a new high of 18.8% in September 2024, while the unemployment rate for those aged 25-29 reached 6.9% in August. (Given the CCP’s habitual data manipulation, the actual situation is likely far worse.)

In such a repressive social environment, the mental state of the population is understandably deteriorating. Increasingly, negative news is surfacing, with suicide and murder cases occurring frequently.

On April 30, 2024, in Hengshan People's Hospital in Hengyang, Hunan Province, a patient, unable to afford further treatment, jumped to their death from a building. On October 1, a man in Anhui Province jumped into a river, and though a kind passerby threw a life ring to save him, he firmly refused it. On September 19, a group suicide pact among people born in the 1990s took place on Shangzhuang Bridge in Haidian District, Beijing, resulting in seven deaths and two missing persons. The term "relay-style jumping from bridges in Taiyuan, Shanxi" also made it to the trending list, as over 20 people committed suicide by jumping from bridges in May alone.

The online slang "Zhang Xianzhong" frequently appears in recent online discussions, referring to random violent killings by desperate individuals taking revenge on society out of frustration with the system. Many perpetrators of these killings are driven by desperation, forced into corners by the harsh realities of life.

On October 8, a 60-year-old man wielding two knives randomly attacked people at the entrance of a primary school in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, resulting in the deaths of three elementary school students and injuring more than ten others.

On September 30, a 37-year-old man, frustrated by unpaid wages and unsuccessful debt collection, went on a rampage in a Walmart in Songjiang District, Shanghai, wielding two knives and indiscriminately attacking people, killing three and injuring 15.

On September 10, a 56-year-old man, after his company went bankrupt, drove a Cadillac into a crowd of students and parents at an elementary school in Wuhan's Guanggu area, knocking over many, with more than a dozen electric scooters strewn on the ground, along with injured adults and children.

On September 3, a bus driver in Dongping County, Tai'an City, Shandong Province, who was facing unemployment due to unpaid wages, suffered a mental breakdown and drove his bus into a group of students, killing 11 and injuring 13.

If you see the trending phrase "Shenyang Tiexi enters the era of cold weapons," you might not immediately understand its meaning. In fact, it refers to the more than ten large-scale random knife attacks in the region in just a few months, with "as few as three people dead, and as many as nine."

The recent rollercoaster ride in the stock market has also left many new investors deeply trapped, which will undoubtedly lead to more suicides and acts of violence.

So, what is the root cause behind so many people going mad, acting violently, self-harming, or engaging in random killings? The madness behind these desperate actions of the Chinese people is, in fact, rooted in the madness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As some netizens bluntly put it, "The CCP has pushed the people to the brink of despair."

The CCP's obsession with maintaining its absolute leadership has reached a "maniacal" level, with no regard for the lives of ordinary people. In contemporary Chinese society, the gap between rich and poor is vast, and social inequality is rampant, placing enormous pressure on the populace. Many still have lingering fears from the three years of lockdowns that restricted their freedom. The subsequent economic downturn has left many struggling to survive, and online posts reveal the grim reality that life in the CCP-controlled country offers "no worst, only worse" scenarios.

What makes things even more hopeless is the CCP's pervasive stability maintenance efforts. The high-pressure governance, censorship, and stark contrast between government propaganda and the harsh reality have left many feeling powerless and depressed. Some people, after touching on sensitive topics in online discussions, are summoned for questioning, have their posts deleted, or are even arrested and sent to mental hospitals, where they are "diagnosed with mental illness."

Just as the bizarre behaviors like "raising paper dogs" and crawling on campus preceded the nationwide "White Paper Movement" following the Urumqi fire in late 2022, which led to the dismantling of lockdown restrictions, extreme pressure inevitably leads to resistance. In today's society, the number of people being driven to madness—or on the brink of it—by the CCP has grown exponentially. When this reaches a certain tipping point, the moment of transformation from quantity to quality will come, and the CCP's "Berlin Wall" will be toppled. Looking at the current state of the CCP-controlled country, can that day be far off?

Editor: Pushan