China's state media has denounced guandan, a popular poker-style card game, over fears it is addictive and distracting people from their work.
The game's popularity has surged in recent years and it has become well-loved by Chinese businesspeople and Communist Party officials.
Now, state-owned newspaper Beijing Youth Daily has slammed the game as "decadent", amid reports state employees have been urged to stop playing the game.
What is guandan?
Guandan, which translates literally to "throwing eggs", is played among four players who pair up in teams.
Using two decks, players must throw down poker and other special card combinations to empty their hand before their opponents do. Games can stretch for hours.
It has been played for decades in the province of Jiangsu but gained prominence nationally among party officials and the business community in recent years.
It is common for businessmen to play the game with local government officials as they wine and dine in the hopes of picking up nuggets of useful information while chatting informally.
Why do people play guandan?
Pan Wang, an associate professor of Chinese and Asian studies at the University of New South Wales, said the game was a reinvention of traditional Chinese card games.
"It's pretty easy to play, and it's fun, and it's creative, and it requires players to be very strategic in order to play," Dr Wang said.
"There's teamwork, and it fosters strategic thinking and it is also intellectually stimulating, which makes it entertaining and addictive to some."
Lawyer Li Keshu told Reuters the card game could help a player understand the characteristics of another.
"You can get to know a person by playing guandan," Mr Li said.
"We can tell whether our teammates know us well, and whether our teammates know how to cooperate, and even learn to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the team."
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, was taught how to play the game by government officials.
He said it was a fun game but he could see how it could be addictive.
And in recent years, the game's addictive nature has landed several players in hot water.
In April 2023, the Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog censured one of its officials in the eastern province of Anhui for playing guandan during a training course.
But in an apparent sign that Beijing was not too perturbed by the growing interest in the game, China's national sports authority organised the first nationwide guandan competition in 2023.
Who is criticising the game?
However, Chinese authorities' admiration for the game now appears to be waning.
Last week, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily newspaper published three commentary articles in three successive days criticising the game.
"In some places, the addiction to guandan has become a poison bullet that corrodes the work style of cadres, and some party members and cadres are intoxicated by it and cannot extricate themselves," the paper said.
Professor Huang said he considered the campaign against the card game to be overblown.
"Beijing Youth Daily is the official publication of the Beijing [Communist] Youth League. It's the official, state-run newspaper," Professor Huang said.
"It ran three articles in a row to criticise guandan. That itself is very unusual."
There have also been media reports that employees in state-owned enterprises have been told to stop playing the game and cease organising guandan events.
Why has the game been criticised?
Beijing Youth Daily quoted a critic of the card game who slammed it as a time waste and representing a trend of "escapism and decadence".
"They feel like this is not good for society, not good for the economy and not good for the party," Professor Huang said.
"Apparently it's a sign of government officials 'lying flat'."
The idea of tangping, or "lying flat", refers to working just enough to get by and rejecting what is considered the rat race of daily life in China.
Professor Huang said the movement against the card game started when the dean of the Fudan University School of Management criticised guandan in a commencement speech.
"He didn't want anybody to be 'lying flat' and playing guandan," Professor Huang said.
"He said that it's not healthy for society."
The commencement speech went viral on Chinese social media, including on the WeChat platform, but Professor Huang said most people did not take it seriously.
"After all, this was from a university professor and administrator in Shanghai," he said.
"He might be influential in his field, but people didn't think that this is something that they need to take seriously."
Will players actually turn away from the game?
Professor Huang said that now a state-owned newspaper had echoed the professor's strident criticism of guandan, citizens would take note.
"Many of them may keep a watchful eye on this development," he said.
"People might be wondering whether this represents the preference from more senior, high-ranking party officials."
But Professor Huang noted that it was unclear who exactly was behind the campaign against the card game.
"I'm not so sure the instruction is from the very top," he said.
"Interestingly, the Xinhua Daily, the official party newspaper of Jiangsu, has come to its defence, arguing that there's no need to pass judgement on whether playing it is right or wrong.
"They have published a rebuttal of the Beijing Youth Daily articles.
"If it was from the very top, I don't think they would dare do that."
Professor Huang said while some citizens might stop playing the game, most people would wait to see if there was a clearer edict from a higher level, or an opinion piece in a "higher-level venue" like the national Xinhua News Agency or The People's Daily.
He said the game's widespread popularity stood in the way of an official government crackdown, and many intellectuals "seem to be against the Beijing News Daily articles".
In 2014, guandan was approved as an "intangible cultural heritage item" of the city of Huai'an in Jiangsu.
That cultural designation is important, according to Dr Wang, who noted that a crackdown on the game would be unworkable due to its distinguished status in that region.
What does it all mean for China?
Dr Wang noted that, in her view, guandan was not the real target of the campaign.
"The target is the misconduct or antisocial behaviour — the corruption-linked eating, drinking, nepotism, indulgence or hedonistic tendencies, and the clique culture," she said.
Although guandan "can be addictive", the Chinese cultural expert said state media criticism associating the game with "lying flat" or corruption was akin to "cutting with one stroke".
"The game is purely a recreational activity for many people and helps build networks, be it between families, colleagues, business clients or strangers," she said.
Dr Wang also said the criticism of guandan was troubling because it showed state surveillance was extending into new areas.
"We can see social surveillance extended from traditional censorship — from politically sensitive topics, prostitution, LGBT, feminism, fandom circles, feminised masculinity — to new things like golf, tennis and now guandan," she said.
Professor Huang said the idea the game was corrupting or bad for the health of society was "ridiculous".
"If you ban guandan for this reason, then you should also ban mahjong and poker," he said.
He said the issue epitomised the "lack of vitality" in Chinese society in the post-COVID era.
"At a time of an economic downturn it reflects the mood of society: a lack of initiative," he said.
"People and officials don't want to make mistakes, so 'lying flat' and playing games becomes one of the preferred options."
ABC/Reuters
