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

Huihui, a 31-year-old woman, sits on a rooftop terrace of a café overlooking Lake Erhai in Dali, southwest China. She recently resigned from her well-paying job as a math teacher at a private school in the megacity of Chongqing, where she worked from 8 am to 11 pm, often teaching on Saturdays. Huihui and five like-minded individuals now reside in a courtyard house near Dali, a city of 800,000 residents.

Tourists flock to Dali's old town and surrounding hills, but young Chinese are increasingly opting for a different path. In July 2025, Huihui quit her job, joining a growing trend of "naked resignation" or "nackt kündigen" in Chinese social media. This movement aims to live life without a new job, often without a safety net. A 35-year-old Douyin user gained 10,000 likes for their resignation video, lamenting the monotony of a 9-to-5 job.

Many Chinese professionals now express dissatisfaction, with 35% of Zhilian Zhaopin survey respondents in 2025 wanting to quit without a new job. Freedom (ziyou) is a common sentiment among these young professionals. Demian, who quit his job at JD.com in Beijing, feels the economy isn't performing well, and technology advancements like artificial intelligence are creating uncertainty, particularly for jobs like programming.

He now manages a hostel for outcasts in Dali, where most residents are in their late 20s, have worked for a couple of years, and have no desire to return to work. This trend of young Chinese escaping the rat race and downsizing their consumption is a "passive intellectual self-defense" according to historian Xu Jilin.