Aussteiger: „Nackt kündigen“: Junge Chinesen entfliehen dem hohen Druck im Job

In July 2025, Huihui, a 31-year-old woman from the southwestern Chinese city of Dali, quit her well-paying job as a mathematics teacher at a private school in Chongqing. She had been working long hours, often from 8 am to 11 pm, and even teaching on Saturdays. Huihui explained that her colleagues also left their students when they quit.

After seven years in the job, she decided it was no longer for her, stating, "I don't like this life, where you see how it ends from the start." Huihui opted for "luoci," a Chinese term that literally translates to "naked resignation," meaning quitting without securing a new job. This practice has gained popularity on Chinese social media, with related content on the Xiaohongshu platform garnering a staggering 3.6 billion views.

Now, Huihui lives with five like-minded individuals in a courtyard house in Dali, a city of 800,000 residents in China, known for its picturesque old town and white wooden courtyard houses. The pleasant highland climate draws tourists and aspiring outcasts alike, with over 100 million visitors to the city annually. So, what drives young Chinese people to leave their urban jobs for the countryside?

Why do they forsake increasing economic uncertainty to do so? And what impact does this have on China? The Handelsblatt interviewed more than a dozen of these young outcasts to find out.