Lelush: How a sulky Russian model became China’s slacker icon

This is made me think about the Black Mirror Episode 'Fifteen Million Merits', where the protagonist struggles hard to get into a casting show out of hate. After he successfully got in and held an angry rant holding a glass shard against the host's throat his 'performance' turned out to be so popular that they made a weekly show out of it.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, damn is that episode a good ~hour of scifi. Black Mirror has some great stuff, if you don't mind a lot of it being _dark_ as hell.

nit: His own neck, not the host's, wasn't it?

Ah yes, I misremembered.

These stories always make me think of contracts, and how truly crazy some of them really are* (valid "across the universe"?!) that people get sucked into and what they end up signing away for a chance at stardom or wealth by trading their freedom of being not-famous.

* Exposing the Rupaul's Drag Race Contract - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=700Nvfa4wHk

>China's "sang wenhua", or "sang" culture, is a movement that ironically celebrates aimlessness and hopelessness.

China's version of 'doomer' culture? They managed to commercialize it quickly.