[imagesource:jiazhang]

Young people in China are being increasingly shut out of the labour market and/or feeling more and more burned out from overwork.

Sounds like we can say the same for youngsters here in South Africa – the world over, even.

But China’s young adults are using these hard knocks as an opportunity to go back to their childhood in a rather unique way; being hired by their parents as ‘full-time children’ to do housework and be on hand whenever needed.

When Jia Zhang’s small business in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang was hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mother of two stopped working to become a full-time child.

That means that her new job is working for her parents full time, just being their daughter, noted NBC News. In exchange, they pay her 8 000 yuan (almost R20 000) a month, which is about the average salary in China. Must be nice.

“My job is to spend time with my parents — for example, taking them to grocery stores — and do some household chores,” Zhang said. “Also, if my parents want to go out, I would make plans in advance, taking them to various stores.”

It screams privilege, but that’s probably just because our country doesn’t look after its people when they are employed.

Youth unemployment has become a serious challenge for China, the world’s second-largest economy, especially after three years of “zero-Covid” restrictions weighed heavily on growth. The jobless rate among people ages 16 to 24 was a record 21.3% in June, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Monday.

Similar figures have been reported in countries such as Italy and Sweden, while in Spain and Greece they are even higher. In the U.S., the youth unemployment rate was 7.5% in June, according to the Federal Reserve.

In comparison, South Africa’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2023 was recorded at 32,9 % – among the highest in the world.

The new job trend is gaining major traction, with the hashtags #FullTimeDaughter and #FullTimeSon making waves on Chinese social media platforms lately, attracting millions of views. Sometimes, you just need a break, and your old childhood bedroom couldn’t be a safer place to figure it all out.

After failing each year to pass China’s intensely competitive postgraduate entrance exam – which was taken by a record 4,7 million people this year – 24-year-old Cici Gong jokingly calls herself a “full-time daughter” after living three years rent-free at her parents’ home in the northeastern city of Dalian.

“I went through a horrible mental breakdown when I failed my first attempt as well as a romantic relationship at the same time,” said Gong, whose parents cover her expenses but don’t pay her a salary. “The time I spent at home served as a mental buffering for me.”

However, Lu Xi, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is concerned that “Psychologically, the term ‘full-time children’ allows room for denial and self-deprecation, which makes it more acceptable to many”:

Lu said some Chinese state media organizations are trying to “rationalize” and “glorify” the emergence of full-time children as “filial piety.”

No matter the “beautifications,” he said, “the underlying essence is still unemployment, and nothing else.”

Despite China’s highly competitive society and an economy that is recovering from the pandemic slower than expected, those who choose to become full-time children receive their fair share of criticism. Many older commenters accuse them of “chewing the old,” a Chinese slang term for young people who depend solely on their parents to make a living.

Gong said her relatives would even criticize her in person for “being lazy and mooching off” her parents’ money.

“It may not sound ‘decent’ to those outsiders at first, especially to those who like labeling others negatively,” she said, “but I think we should allow such moments to exist. Experiencing ups and downs — it’s just life.”

In recent years, young people in China have started looking for less demanding, more short-term jobs so that they can find more time to be human. There was even the rise of the “lying flat” movement, which embraces doing the bare minimum to get by rather than working relentlessly. While this may be worrying to some, it seems like an appropriate reaction to a capitalist world that pushes you too hard for very little gain.

For many of these full-time children in China, the arrangement is merely a stopover on the way to getting back on track anyway. But, since they are finding themselves and their parents that much happier in the new arrangement, only time will tell if they do ever enter society again.

[source:nbcnews]