Ancient lifestyle choice rooted in Taoist culture is being adopted by young people to de-stress, fool the boss, get creative in the kitchen
From cooking barbecued pork with Yakult to trying Superman posture tricks, young people in China are embracing a lifestyle of xie xiu or “evil cultivation” to create bizarre life hacks to cope with stress.
The idea stems from Taoist culture, which provides deviant paths to immortality, describing those who reject orthodox practices and abandon moral codes.
In Chinese web novels, this lifestyle is usually the mark of villains.
Recently, however, xie xiu has been used by young Chinese as a humorous way of rebelling against convention.
