Passive era

被时代 (bèi shídài): era of the passive tense

In this era, people are (clockwise from red characters in box) “made to be employed,” “made pregnant,” “made to have a comfortable life,” “suicided,” and “made to increase.”

A time when euphemistic labels are given to actions that belie the underlying compulsion behind those actions--that is, the present.

In Chinese, the grammatical construction bei-X means “to be Xed,” and implies that that the Xed party has been forced or suffered to X. For example, someone who was invited to drink tea (i.e. was called in by the police for interrogation) could say she “was tea-drinked” (bèi hé chá 被喝茶). Netizens have coined a number of terms using this construction, giving rise to the “era of the passive tense.”