- Some young adults in China are opting to work as "full-time children" in place of traditional careers.
- Full-time children are often paid by their parents to run errands, clean, and prepare food.
- High unemployment rates and China's 996 work culture have made career-climbing less attractive.
Entering adulthood has traditionally meant becoming independent, which often entailed moving away from your parents. In China, however, young people are turning this idea on its head and staying at home, working as "full-time children."
Some Chinese youth are rejecting career-climbing, opting to forego a traditional job and instead continue their duties as children in exchange for pay or housing costs. This can range from running errands and doing chores to taking care of one's parents. China's notoriously grueling 996 culture, which entails 72-hour workweeks, and difficulty finding employment are some of the main contributors to the "full-time children" movement.
There isn't a strict criteria for what makes a so-called full-time child, and the associated compensation and responsibilities vary, according to reports detailing the trend. But it's not simply accepting money from one's parents while living at home — there are tasks associated with the setup, according to reports.
For example, Julie, a 29-year-old Chinese woman, told BBC that she works as a full-time child, cooking and cleaning for her parents. She declined her parents' offer of compensation, she told the publication, but they do cover a majority of her living expenses. Julie, who said she is recovering from burnout, told BBC that her last job had her working 16 hours a day which had her feeling like a "walking corpse."
Jia Zhang also embraced the idea of being a full-time child, NBC News reported, and receives a monthly payment from her parents. She quit her job running a small business due to financial hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report, and now works for her parents.
Zhang's daily routine as a full-time child consists of grocery shopping and doing housework, NBC News reported. Before working for her parents, Zhang told the publication that she had a hard time balancing her work life and the needs of her two children and parents. She said she makes the equivalent of around $1,115 a month working for her parents, which is a typical salary in China, NBC News reported.
Litsky Li, 21, told CNN that she also gets paid by her family to work for them as a full-time child. She runs errands for her family and helps out her grandmother, who is living with dementia. Li told CNN that she prefers to "lie flat," rather than dealing with the competitive nature of school and work environments.
Many young people in China, like Li, are rejecting modern work culture as part of the "lying flat" trend that Li mentioned. On social media, some college graduates are referencing the choice to opt out of climbing the corporate ladder by posting pictures of themselves literally lying flat on the ground, looking dejected, while wearing caps and gowns.
Similarly, the "let it rot" trend is encouraging youth to openly express feelings of exhaustion and hopelessness. The trend encourages leisure and a lackluster work ethic.
These trends rejecting common work norms seem to stem from sparse post-graduate job prospects and the overall dread of a bleak future felt by many young adults in China. Unemployment rates for Chinese youth are at an all-time high, with one out of five not working, according to official figures.
In China, those who are employed often have little time for anything else. The "996" work schedule entails working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
In the US, it's increasingly common for millennials and Gen Z to live with their parents. In 2022, the US Census Bureau reported that among adults ages 25 to 34, 18% of men and 12% of women surveyed said they live with their parents. The numbers are higher among Gen Z, with nearly 30% of 18 to 25-year-olds surveyed living with family, according to Credit Karma.
However, the "full-time children" trend appears to vary from simply living with one's parents after graduating, as there is some level of compensation involved in exchange for helping with household and family needs.
In China, there are even social media groups devoted to the "full-time children" trend. A group on the Chinese social network Douban has thousands of members, and you can find over 40,000 posts about "full-time sons and daughters" on the popular platform Xiaohongshu, CNN reported.