Aussteiger: „Nackt kündigen“: Junge Chinesen entfliehen dem hohen Druck im Job
Chinas Aufstiegsversprechen bröckelt. Vor allem in der jungen Generation schwindet die Bereitschaft, sich aufzureiben. Das Handelsblatt hat junge Aussteiger besucht. Ihre Motive überraschen.
In the summer of 2025, Huihui, a 31-year-old mathematics teacher from Chongqing, a major city in central China, made a bold decision to resign from her well-paying job. She chose to "naked resign", or "luoci" in Chinese, a term that has gained popularity in Chinese social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. With over 3.6 billion searches, "luoci" is glorified as a symbol of freedom and rebellion against the pressures of the job market.
Huihui left her teaching position, often working late into the night and even on weekends, citing her dissatisfaction with the predictability of her life. She and five other like-minded individuals now live in a courtyard house in a small town near Dali, a city of 800,000 inhabitants. The picturesque highland climate and the picturesque Bai ethnic community's traditional whitewashed courtyard houses attract over 100 million tourists annually.
The reasons behind young Chinese people moving to the provinces and abandoning their jobs are complex, but they often stem from a desire for freedom, away from the economic uncertainties and pressures of the job market in major cities.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
