‘These jobs can be respectable too’: Why youths in China are abandoning white-collar jobs for ‘light labor’

When
Eunice
Wang
got
a
job
as
a
strategy
consultant
at
a
pharmaceutical
company
in
Beijing,
it
was
a
dream
come
true. 

The
dream
was
six
years
in
the
making:
She
graduated
from
college
majoring
in
biological
engineering,
and
later
completed
a
master’s
in
business
analytics
in
the
United
States.

But
it
took
just
three
months
for
the
25-year-old
to
call
it
quits.

“I
thought
I
could
stay
for
one
full
year,
but
I
thought,
wow,
I
would
rather
kill
myself.
I’d
be
really
hopeless,”
she
said. 

Wang
moved
back
to
her
hometown
in
northern
China
to
be
a
barista
six
months
ago.
Such
a
switch
from
a
white-collar
job
to
“qing
ti
li
huo”
(or
“light
labor”
in
Chinese)
is
gaining
popularity
among
younger
people
in
the
country. 

A
hashtag
that
translates
to

“my
first
physical
work
experience”
has
30.3
million
views
on
social
media
platform
Xiaohongshu,
where
some
users
describe
their
new
jobs
as
a
“no-brainer.” 

Such
jobs
include
being
a
manager
at
a
fast
food
restaurant,
wait
staff
and
cleaning
crew
—
anything
but
sitting
in
an
office.

“There’s
lots
of
discussion
online
where
young
people
are
sharing
about
how
they
escaped
from
their
white-collar
jobs
because
they’re
not
satisfied,”
said
Jia
Miao,
an
assistant
professor
of
sociology
at
New
York
University
Shanghai. 

Wu
Xiaogang,
a
sociology
professor
from
the
same
university,
added:
“It
is
quite
unusual.
If
you
have
a
college
degree,
you’re
supposed
to
be
a
white
collar
worker.”

A
paper
co-authored
by
Wu
estimated
that

at
least
a
quarter
of
college
graduates
in
China
are
underemployed
—
and
that’s
on
top
of
a
record
high
youth
unemployment
rate.
Underemployment
is
when
people
are
in
jobs
that
do
not
reflect
their
skills
or
training. 

“What
is
undeniable
is
that
after
Covid-19,
while
China’s
economy
is
recovering
…
a
lot
of
young
people
really
struggled
to
find
a
job.
Some
of
them
chose
to
look
for
a
light
labor
job
to
try
and
support
themselves,”
said
Miao. 

That’s
not
quite
the
case
for
young
workers
like
Wang,
however,
who
are
engaging
in
what
experts
CNBC
spoke
to
call
“a
voluntary
withdrawal”
from
skilled
work. 

Wang
imagined
that
her
office
job
as
a
consultant
would
be
“really
creative,”
anticipating
collaboration
with
colleagues
and
leaders.
But
she
said
the
reality
was
a
far
cry
from
that.

“I
didn’t
have
the
time
to
communicate
with
anybody
because
of
the
workload,”
she
said.

Instead,
her
days
were
spent
drawing
up
slides,
writing
reports
in
Mandarin
and
translating
them
to
English
—
what
Wu
describes
as
clerical
work
that
requires
“little
intellectual
challenge.” 

More
college
graduates
are
becoming
“xiao
bai
ling”
— 
or
“small
white-collar”
in
Chinese,
Wu
said. 

Miao
added
that
“small”
refers
not
only
to
the
age
of
workers
but
also
their
roles
—
which
are
typically
junior
ones
that
require
little
decision-making
or
personal
input.
This
“dehumanization”
of
workers,
however,
is
not
new,
she
added. 

“When
our
society
moved
from
agriculture
to
industrialization,
from
farm
to
factories,
the
work
did
not
need
creativity
or
autonomy.
You
are
needed
in
a
specific
position
to
do
the
same
thing
repeatedly,”
she
said. 

“The
same
thing
is
happening
now
as
our
economy
becomes
more
mature
and
sophisticated
…
A
lot
of
young
people
might
feel
disappointed
about
their
jobs
because
companies
are
not
hiring
them
for
a
job,
but
they’re
hiring
you
to
operate
a
computer
on
a
desk.”

Given

high
competition
and

a
grueling
“996”
culture,
work
has
become
emotionally
and
physically
draining
for
young
professionals,
Miao
said. 

“You
do
not
have
a
sense
of
self,
even
though
you
have
some
sort
of
occupational
prestige,”
Wu
added. 

Even
so,
young
people
like
Wang
continue
to
grapple
with
the
traditional
expectation
of
going
to
college
and
getting
a
“good”
respectable
office
job. 

“I
was
told
that
if
you
sacrifice
your
personal
time,
if
you
put
in
a
lot
of
effort
and
stay
up
late
—
in
the
end
you
will
become
an
elite,
you
will
be
admirable,”
she
said. 

“It
just
felt
like
if
I
didn’t
get
a
‘real
job,’
everything
I
did
before
would
be
meaningless.
There
was
a
really
strong
fear
that
I
would
be
a
failure.” 

Young
professionals
around
the
world
have
been
questioning
the
meaning
of
work
in
recent
years,
with
movements
like

“quiet
quitting”
and

“bare
minimum
Mondays”
gaining
popularity. 

And
in
China,
there’s
the
phenomenon
of
“tang
ping,”
in
which

youths
reject
a
culture
of
overwork
and
embrace
“lying
flat.” 

The
country’s
rapid
economic
transition
is
what’s
causing
a
“dramatic
change”
in
work
values,
said
Miao. 

“For
the
older
generation,
they
worked
under
a
planned
economy
…
where
work
is
combined
with
a
patriotic
spirit,
such
that
your
work
is
contributing
to
a
new,
socialist
country,”
she
said. 

“But
now,
since
we
have
accumulated
a
certain
level
of
GDP
and
economic
foundations
…
young
people
want
to
feel
individualism.
They
don’t
believe
that
their
ultimate
goal
is
to
contribute
to
the
country.” 

It
was
only
in
hindsight
that
Wang
realized
she
never
“personally
wanted”
to
pursue
her
major,
or
be
in
a
white-collar
job. 

“I
looked
back
and
I
realized
it
was
because
my
parents
told
me
to
choose
it,
people
told
me
that
with
this
major
I’d
have
a
really,
really
great
future,”
Wang
said. 

“But
I
never
thought
about
whether
the
job
would
even
be
suitable
for
me
—
it
looks
good
on
a
resume,
but
will
I
enjoy
this?”

The
lure
of
“light
labor
jobs”
for
white-collared
workers
comes
in
the
form
of
“more
freedom
and
flexibility”
in
work
schedules,
said
Wu
—
and
the
trade-off
is
less
job
security
and
income.

“I
won’t
encourage
everyone
to
just
quit
their
jobs
to
do
this
…
I
do
sometimes
reflect
on
my
own
privilege,
how
I
can
only
pursue
this
because
my
parents
are
middle-class
and
I
don’t
have
to
worry
financially,”
Wang
added. 

She
earned
about
12,000
Chinese
yuan
($1,700)
a
month
in
her
white-collar
job.
As
a
barista,
she
earns
a
quarter
of
that
and
receives
“a
little”
financial
support
from
her
parents. 

But
what
may
be
priceless
to
her
is
the
self-discovery
Wang
said
she’s
been
able
to
experience
after
walking
away
from
her
white-collar
job. 

“People
may
say,
you
took
a
long
time
to
finish
your
master’s
and
you
end
up
serving
coffee?
A
job
that
people
who
just
finished
middle
school
or
primary
school
can
do?”
she
said. 

“The
traditional
Chinese
thinking
is:
If
you
don’t
go
to
college,
if
you
don’t
put
in
effort
in
your
job
applications,
you’ll
end
up
being
a
waitress,
cleaning
staff
on
the
street.” 

But
Wang
said
she’s
come
to
realize
that
those
jobs
are
not
as
simple
as
many
believe
them
to
be.
For
example,
being
a
barista
not
only
allowed
her
to
pick
up
skills
about
coffee-making,
it
also
helped
her
overcome
her
fear
of
striking
up
conversations
with
people. 

“In
the
past,
I
would
have
been
really
self-centered
and
not
given
[blue-collar
workers]
a
second
thought,”
she
added. 

“But
actually
these
jobs
can
be
respectable
too
—
why
are
some
jobs
considered
lesser
than
others?” 

Wang
said
she
now
finds
satisfaction
in
her
job
that
she
wasn’t
able
to
find
in
her
previous
one,
whether
it’s
through
latte
art
or
seeing
happy
customers. 

“It’s
a
funny
thing
to
say,
but
going
to
work
makes
me
happy
now,”
she
said
with
a
laugh.

“I
was
really
sad
about
[leaving
my
office
job]
because
all
these
years
I
really
tried
to
fit
the
mold.
But
I
think
I
can
never
be
the
person
that
society
wants.” 

—
CNBC’s
Ulrica
Lin
contributed
to
this
report.