All the Sad Young Chinese Professionals

Earlier this year, one of the most popular apps in China was called Are You Dead?. This was not a game, but a handy way for the many young people who live alone across the country, mostly in cities, to keep tabs on one another. Users needed to check in with the app every 48 hours by pressing a big green button. If a user did not check in, the app promptly notified a designated contact. Designed as a source of comfort to those who worry about dying alone, the app became the top paid download for the iPhone in China in January.Then it vanished. Apple said in a statement that China’s cyberspace watchdog ordered the company to remove it from its Chinese store. The app seemed to challenge the Communist Party’s insistence that the Chinese people are content beneficiaries of economic and social progress. Instead, Are You Dead? exposed the unease felt by many Chinese urbanites, and it highlighted the depths of a major social problem facing China today: loneliness. In suppressing the app, China’s authorities have made plain that they are watching the public mood and not liking what they see.From the February 2025 issue: The anti-social centuryIn