Eating oranges in the bath: monkeys in the rainforest fight absurdity with absurdity

They are not playing a prank, nor are they crazy, but they are shedding their rationality and exploring freedom. Recently, a group of people shared their experiences and emotional experiences of eating oranges while taking a bath on the Internet, which attracted a lot of imitation and attention from netizens. Let's take a look at the author's interpretation and analysis of the specific situation.

"The pursuit of freedom among contemporary young people leads to the bathroom, a private room."

"Peeling a fresh, cool orange with your bare hands, letting the citrus scent rise in the steamy bathroom, letting the juice run over your body, and then immediately rinsing it off. Enjoying the moment, eating an orange without leaving any sticky mess."

Recently, "eating oranges while taking a bath" has emerged on the Internet. Initially, this behavior attracted the attention of more than 8 million netizens on Tiktok. Later, this trend spread to China, and many netizens tried to feel the "favor of the orange god" while bathing.

Image source: TikTok related topic page

Eating cold oranges in a steamy bathroom is a slightly weird way for young people to relieve stress. Compared with other stress relief methods such as willful shopping or crazy exercise, eating oranges in the bath is a "cost-effective" option. No need to go through a lot of trouble, just add "eating oranges" to your bathing schedule to get the dual sensory enjoyment of smell and taste. It is this minimalist operation that has made many netizens who were waiting and watching go from half-believing to taking action, and finally sighing "It's so cool" and joining the "Orange Gate".

Source: Weibo netizens’ opinions

The small bathroom constitutes a secret space for oneself. While taking a bath, one can peel sweet and juicy oranges at will. Under the slightly absurd behavior, one can feel unprecedented relaxation and freedom.

1. Monkeys in the rainforest: limited free time

From Tiktok to Xiaohongshu, "eating oranges while taking a bath" has crossed cultural boundaries, attracting netizens surfing the Internet to imitate it. The spread of "eating oranges while taking a bath" has distinct characteristics of meme dissemination. From the mental journey shared by many netizens, it is not difficult to see the traces of this transition from imitation to identification: when they first saw "eating oranges while taking a bath", they were puzzled and a little eager to try it. After trying it, they spontaneously "promoted" it on social media, which resonated with people and caused a new round of dissemination.

Image source: Xiaohongshu related sharing

However, a closer look at these passionate descriptions shows that the popularity of eating oranges in the bath may not just be a trend. In the writings of netizens who have tried "eating oranges in the bath", they all mentioned "freedom" and described this feeling as "the joy of being a monkey in the rainforest".

With the joint participation of netizens, " taking a bath and eating oranges" has gradually deviated from its simple literal meaning and become an experiment in exploring freedom, embodying people's pursuit of an unrestrained natural state.

Image source: Shared by netizens on Xiaohongshu

After a series of "performance art" such as crawling on the playground, raising a puppy in a cardboard box, and boiling tea around the stove, the contemporary young people's pursuit of freedom leads to the bathroom, a private room. When the bathroom door is closed, it forms a secret corner that belongs only to oneself, a Canaan where all disguises and defenses can be removed.

Virginia Woolf once said: "If a woman is determined to write novels, she must have money and a room of her own." A room of one's own is a metaphor for the territory of freedom, which is not only spacious in physical space but also free on the spiritual level.

"Even if I am in a nutshell, I am still the king of the infinite universe." Eating an orange while taking a bath provides a sense of control of being in a nutshell, where people have the joy of returning to nature and the freedom of madness and chaos.

Image source: Shared by netizens on Xiaohongshu

As netizens said, eating oranges in the shower, in addition to the sensory experience of the refreshing fragrance entering the throat, the refreshing feeling also comes from not having to worry about the messy state when eating the orange. You can tear an orange with your teeth like a wild beast, and the juice will splash everywhere, but there is no need to worry, all the mess will soon be washed away by the running shower water.

Image source: Shared by netizens on Xiaohongshu

The private space eliminates the psychological pressure of "going crazy" and the worries of maintaining a decent image. This unreserved indulgence without considering self-image has a similar core to the "Goblin Mode" selected by Oxford University Press as the hot word of 2022: using "prank"-style behaviors to express one's exploration of comfort and freedom.

But whether it is the monkeys in the rainforest or the green goblin, we have to think about this question: Why are people eager to break away from the image of "human beings"?

Whether it is the Goblin mode or various seemingly incomprehensible "crazy" behaviors, perhaps they all imply people's rethinking of individual existence and self. Choosing to take off the rational and decent human coat and return to nature and wildness may also represent a challenge and deconstruction of the well-organized modern "decent" order.

Image source: Weibo user comments

In Hesse's "Steppenwolf", the protagonist Harry Haller was born into a respectable middle-class family and is a well-educated writer. However, he suffers from the conflict between "human nature" and "wolf nature". He is like a steppe wolf that breaks into the city, out of tune and not knowing where to go. This contradiction and conflict forces him to destroy his decent life and forget his troubles in music and sensory enjoyment. The spiritual crisis of "Steppenwolf" still has its traces in modern society: in modern society, people seem to have learned to go crazy hidden under the mask of "respectability".

Just as the entry #The hidden politeness of college students# once attracted attention, polite modern humans will only expose their carefully controlled "moments of madness" in certain subtle details.

Image source: The original post of the college student's vague courtesy

For those who take a bath and eat oranges, the limited freedom in the bathroom may not be the ultimate goal. Kant said, "Freedom is not to do what one wants, but to be self-sovereign." Taking a bath and eating oranges can provide, in addition to the momentary freedom of becoming a monkey, more of a mobile resting moment, pressing the "pause button" of self-sovereignty for the fast-paced life of respectability and restraint.

The mischievous indulgence of eating oranges in the bathroom is a form of restrained "madness", a form of active resistance.

"For modern people, returning to a certain simple animal state at the right time is both a precious happiness and an effective purification." After the bath, all the juice flows into the sewer with the water, and when we walk out of the bathroom, we are decent and elegant modern humans again.

People who enjoy eating oranges while bathing do not indulge in this moment of limited freedom, but use this period of indulgence of "returning to nature" to purify their tired souls and devote themselves to busy real life again.

2. Get out of the bathroom: Regain happiness in the details

Despite its continued popularity, the stress-relieving magic of "eating oranges in the bathroom" is not always effective. Many netizens have expressed their incomprehension of this behavior: eating an ordinary orange in the bathroom will not have any magical effect, an orange is still an orange, and a bathroom is still a bathroom.

Image source: Douyin netizens' comments

Source: Weibo netizens’ opinions

Others say that this method is not so "relaxing" because after enjoying the freedom of traveling through the rainforest, they still have to face the reality of picking up the fruit peels.

Some netizens also said that this method of decompression has brought them new anxieties: seeing everyone else easily relax, while they themselves cannot relax from taking a bath and eating oranges, and instead have an anxiety that "I can't even do such a small thing."

Image source: Xiaohongshu netizens’ opinions

The combination of eating oranges while taking a bath and MBTI, and the discussion of oranges or tangerines may turn the originally minimalist stress relief method into a new source of anxiety.

Image source: Xiaohongshu netizens’ opinions

In fact, if you think about it carefully, there is really nothing magical about taking a bath and eating oranges. Perhaps what is really important is not a fixed "de-stress formula", but a flexible and free happiness equation. "The meaning of life is different for everyone, every day, and every moment, so what is important is not the universal meaning of life, but the special meaning of life for each person at a specific moment."

Perhaps there is no universal magic of happiness. Taking a bath and eating oranges provides us with inspiration. If we open our minds and actively explore, everyone can gain simple happiness and joy.

As a variation of "eating oranges in the shower", netizens have discovered many other ways to play, such as "eating mangoes in the shower" and "eating grapefruits in the shower". Perhaps the philosophy of "eating oranges in the shower" lies in this: it doesn't matter what you do or how you do it, the most important thing is to liberate your nature and enjoy this moment wholeheartedly.

Image source: Shared by netizens on Xiaohongshu

“People do not live for a lifetime, a few years, months or days, but for a few moments.” The charm of eating oranges while taking a bath does not lie in some kind of “supernatural” magical experience, but in providing a way to obtain continuous happiness even after walking out of the bathroom: re-examine oneself and life, let the brief self-release awaken our dull senses, and regain the ability to find happiness in the details.

On Douban, the topic #10,000 reasons to love life# has received more than 130 million views, where people share the lovely moments in their lives and exchange the power of loving life from others' sharing. The moment of eating cold oranges in the steamy bathroom, the moment of putting hands together and making a wish on your birthday, the moment of listening to music with headphones and dazed... It is the vitality bursting out of these moments that supports our tired souls.

Image source: Douban #10,000 reasons to love life# Related discussions

Schopenhauer said: "When people's various desires are not satisfied, they are at the painful end; when they are satisfied, they are at the boring end. A person's life is like a pendulum that keeps swinging between these two ends." Modern society seems to confirm this point of view more and more. In employment, marriage, childbirth, and education, people always seem to be in endless contradictions and constant internal consumption.

However, people do not seem to succumb to the swing between the two poles of pain and boredom, and always try to find a middle way of active resistance, using humor and creativity to fight against nothingness. Perhaps in the ever-changing life, we are still swept forward by the bustling waves, but at this moment of taking a bath and eating oranges, we can put aside all worries and distractions, and feel the pleasure and pleasure of abandoning constraints in the absurdity of becoming a monkey.

Image source: Xiaohongshu netizens’ opinions

In Steppenwolf, Hesse believes that "whether it is a high degree of wisdom or simple naivety, whoever can enjoy the momentary happiness to the fullest, who always lives in the present, not looking ahead or behind, who knows how to evaluate every little flower on the roadside and the value of every small, playful moment so kindly and carefully, then life will not harm him in the slightest."

The freedom brought by taking a bath and eating oranges is short-lived. In the lingering fragrance, we will eventually walk out of the bathroom and return from wild monkeys to civilized humans. But indulging in the momentary joy of monkeys in the rainforest, with mischievous joy, fights against the absurdity of life, and is enough to fight back and mock the complexity and disorder of life.

(The above pictures are from the Internet)

Author: October Kannozuki

WeChat public account: Zhizhu.com (ID: covricuc)