Note on Uncle Xiang's Notebook

The life of a Heisei shut-in is the greatest dividend of this era.

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:30:00 +0800

Saw an interesting topic on Zhihu: the greatest dividend of the current era might be “the life of a Heisei shut-in.”

This statement sounds a bit self-deprecating. A person lives alone in a room with the air conditioner running, the lights on, drinks and snacks within reach, and an endless supply of animations, movies, games, and short videos on the screen; there’s no desire to go out, and no need to. Work can be done online, meals can be delivered to the door, and the knowledge and experience of strangers is always just a search away. Such a life would have been hard to imagine in the past five thousand years, yet today it has become the default option that many people can simply turn to.

We’re so used to it that we rarely realize how luxurious it is.

Condensing thousands of years of hard work into a single room

In ancient times, people spent a considerable portion of their day keeping life going: obtaining food, preserving it, fetching water, keeping warm, lighting their homes, sheltering from the weather, and dealing with physical discomfort. Even without painting the past as unduly bleak, it’s hard to deny that comfort was not the default background of life, but rather a brief state that had to be continuously earned through labor.

Today, an ordinary room can stay cool in summer and warm in winter. Refrigerators extend the life of our food, washing machines take over repetitive manual tasks, and electric lights ensure that night is no longer synonymous with darkness. All we have to do is flip a switch or accept a modest electricity bill.

This is not the miracle brought about by the invention of a single genius, but rather the cumulative result of energy, industry, transportation, cities, and public services working together. When modern people feel they have “done nothing,” they are often standing on the work of many people, many machines, and many generations.

A so-called homebody is, first and foremost, a person held up by infrastructure.

Entertainment became nearly infinite for the first time

In the past, if a person wanted to spend an evening, their options were limited. A book had to be written, printed, and brought to hand; a play required actors, a stage, and an audience to be present in the same place; music and stories had a definite time and location.

Now, we have a near-overwhelming abundance of personal entertainment. Lying in bed, one can enter other people’s stories, other people’s courts, other people’s universes within seconds. Screens offer not only shows but also social connections, news, tutorials, games, and a constantly updating public square.

The greatness of this matter is not that entertainment has become more sophisticated, but that the entry points to entertainment are finally no longer scarce. A person who is unsociable, physically impaired, temporarily unemployed, or simply doesn’t want to see anyone today can still have an entire evening’s worth of the world.

This wasn’t a “lazy choice” in the past, because such a choice simply didn’t exist at all.

Knowledge Has Also Been Put Into the Pocket

Another thing I really love about this era is that many problems no longer need to wait for a knowledgeable person to appear before they have a chance of being answered.

When you want to know how to fix something, you just search it; to learn a new language, you open a course; when curious about an unfamiliar place, you first look at the map and others’ records. The answers may not be reliable, and the information may not bring wisdom, but the distance between “I want to know” and “I can start searching” has become incredibly short.

In the past, knowledge was often bound to geography, identity, wealth, and lineage. Today, an ordinary person sitting in a small room can occasionally come into contact with experiences that far exceed the radius of their own life. Increased access does not mean equal access to understanding; devices, networks, education, and attention still draw boundaries. Even so, this openness alone is enough to transform a person’s inner life.

A shut-in doesn’t necessarily withdraw from the world. Sometimes, they simply access an oversized world in a low-cost way.

Bonuses Don’t Automatically Transform Into Happiness

Of course, comfortable rooms are not happiness itself.

A person can have air conditioning, the internet, and unlimited content, yet still feel anxious, lonely, and unable to sleep. Too many choices become noise; being always online becomes a new form of labor; food delivered to your door cannot handle relationships, illness, and aging for you. Those who find it easiest to enjoy the “shut-in life” usually already have relatively stable housing, devices, income, and personal time. For others, solitude is not freedom, but the absence of anywhere else to go.

So, what truly deserves cherishing about “Heisei shut-ins” is not shutting yourself away, nor refusing to make an effort, but rather acknowledging: people have the right to devote part of their lives to resting, to playing, to zoning out, to doing things that produce nothing.

We don’t have to trade every free hour for skills, income, or a better version of ourselves.

This may be the most misunderstood form of abundance

Humans are always prone to taking present-day conveniences for granted and treating what they already have as if it were as natural as air. We continue to feel anxious about bigger houses, faster devices, and higher incomes, yet we rarely feel amazed by the fact that “tonight we can safely lie in bed and watch a movie of our own choosing.”

But if we stretch the timeline a little, we will find that the leisure enjoyed by an ordinary person today might be something that even nobles in the past could not possess in its entirety: stable temperature, abundant food, continuous lighting, private entertainment, knowledge from far away, and the freedom to choose what comes next without having to ask for permission.

This is not to say that we are already living in paradise. It is only to say that, before complaining about this era, we might occasionally acknowledge the gifts it has given us.

Being a “Heisei homebody” who can close the door, turn on the screen, and spend a quiet night at home is, in a sense, a huge dividend handed down from five thousand years of living history to ordinary people.

Perhaps the real question is: when we finally earn the right to rest, will we be able to stop feeling ashamed of resting?

写作附记

Original Prompt

$blog-writer Saw an interesting topic on Zhihu: the biggest dividend of the current era — the life of a HEISEI shut-in. This is something unimaginable over the past five thousand years, yet now it’s within easy reach.

Writing Instructions

This article is an original essay based on a user-provided topic, not a reproduction or restatement of the original Zhihu post; “Heisei freeter” (平成废宅) is used as an observational term provided by the user, and its origin has not been investigated or verified.

Major Events of 2026

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 19:00:00 +0800

This is a place to jot down scattered thoughts and fragments—things that don’t quite warrant a full post of their own. A year-in-review post is not a chronicle of the news, nor a substitute for the longer pieces that deserve their own reading. It only keeps what truly changed your judgment, changed the prices, or left a mark on daily life over the course of the month.

As of July 12, 2026, only what has already happened is recorded here. Entries after August will be left as placeholders until the events actually take place; previews are not treated as facts. The AI-related timeline has been consolidated into AI Major Events, and this page retains other annual events.

January 2026

New Year Begins with Rule Changes

Starting from January 1st, a batch of new regulations will take effect, with the VAT Law, the revised Public Security Administration Punishments Law, and the National Parks Law entering new implementation stages. They are not as loud as a breaking news story, yet they form the backdrop of the year: taxation, public order, and ecological protection are all continuing to translate principles into more concrete everyday rules.

Reminder for Self-Inspection of Overseas Income

The tax authorities have reminded taxpayers to conduct self-inspections regarding their overseas income over the past three years. Here, a boundary needs to be drawn: this is a self-inspection reminder as reported in public news, and it does not mean that everyone has received the same notice, nor does it mean that one can determine their own filing obligations based solely on an article. Cross-border income, tax credits, and tax residency status all need to be assessed based on individual documentation and official guidelines.

Small Things Can Reveal the True Structure of a Business

The “cap-opening red envelope” campaign for baijiu and the adjustment of Alipay’s Wealth Black Card benefits may look like mere changes to promotions and membership perks on the surface, but both reflect competition for existing market share: liquor companies want to drive higher actual bottle-opening rates, while platforms want to shift their costs from gifts to more sustainable services. These may not qualify as major annual events, but they’re worth keeping here as a reminder not to just look at the word “discount,” but to consider who ultimately bears the cost of the benefits.

A Belated Farewell

When an elderly family member passes away, those who have been working away from home for years will realize that distance not only causes people to miss the last farewell, but also turns many words that could have been properly said into unfinished conversations. Alzheimer’s disease causes farewells to begin even earlier, yet it does not leave families a clear moment to say goodbye. This is not public news—it is simply the most worth-remembering personal moment of this year: when you can make a phone call, make one more.

February 2026

Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics

From February 6 to 22, the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will be held. Together with the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in the middle of the year, it constitutes one of the few confirmed global public events of 2026. The significance of sporting events lies not only in the medals, but also in the fact that they briefly pull attention away from market fluctuations and model leaderboards.

“The U.S. Kill Line” Becomes an Internet Metaphor

The “American kill line” has gone from an internet meme to a rough metaphor for the cost of living, healthcare, and unemployment risks. The term is not a rigorous economic indicator and cannot be used to replace poverty lines, medical burden, or household asset data; it is worth recording because it puts the anxiety of “looking like the income isn’t low, but actually having no buffer” in very blunt terms.

Xiaomi’s product transition and the cooling of the electric vehicle sector represent the other side of market sentiment this month: the product cycle and valuation expectations are beginning to diverge, and industry heat can no longer be used as a substitute for individual company earnings validation.

March 2026

At the Start of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, the Government Work Report Takes Shape

In March, the National Two Sessions released the Government Work Report, making 2026 the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan.” The report places expanding domestic demand, developing new quality productive forces, stabilizing employment, and preventing risks on the same task list. For ordinary people, macro goals ultimately still come down to consumption, jobs, housing, and corporate orders. This annual article first records this direction, without rushing to translate policy slogans into investment conclusions.

April 2026

Movies, Online Fiction, and Baijiu Are All Facing the Same Problem

The decline in Moutai’s net profit for the first time, and the May Day box office remaining below the 2023–2024 plateau, occurred in different industries, yet both point to the same phenomenon: “attention and trust being repeatedly worn down.” Users are not ceasing to consume entirely; rather, they are more willing to wait for word-of-mouth and results before deciding whether to invest their time and money.

A Snack Store in Songjiang University Town

Lingshi Henmang’s entry into the Songjiang University Town is a very small local news item, yet it illustrates why low-price retail must find the right audience: the university town provides a steady stream of young customers, while the surrounding new urban areas offer additional support for stores in terms of rent, commuting, and community spending. Low price is not a universal answer—location and population density are the prerequisites for a store’s survival.

Reassessing Work After Reading News About Sudden Death

Scrolling through one piece after another of sudden-death news, a slight tightness in the chest easily gets magnified into an interrogation of life: why do we have to work away from home for so long, and what exactly are we trading all the savings for. Medical matters should be left to doctors; the annual page only keeps the life questions it triggers—work, marriage, health, and the fantasy of “low-cost lying flat”—none of which can solve the other three on its own.

May 2026

Cross-Border Securities Operations Enter a Window of Centralized Rectification

Eight departments including the CSRC have issued the implementation plan for the comprehensive rectification of illegal cross-border securities, futures, and fund business operations, with internet brokerages such as Futu and Tiger Brokers becoming the most easily observable samples in the market. The most important misinterpretation to avoid here is: the rectification window does not equal a two-year period of unrestricted operation, and the lifting of restrictions statistics does not mean that shareholders have already sold. Rules, account boundaries, and enforcement details need to be examined separately.

June 2026

The World Cup Kicks Off, Attention Once Again Taken Over by Major Events

The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, kicks off in June. This is the first men’s FIFA World Cup in history to be jointly hosted by three countries and expanded to 48 teams. The traffic, travel, and advertising business brought by the tournament will compete with AI, consumer spending, and short-form video for the same share of attention over the coming months.

July 2026

August 2026

Not yet happened, to be supplemented.

September 2026

It hasn’t happened yet; to be added.

October 2026

Not yet happened, to be added.

November 2026