Tired of the pressure to succeed as a photographer, Litsky Li accepted a better offer: to quit her job to become one of the many children in China who are separated from their families to stay at home.
Li, 21, now spends her days buying food for her family and caring for her grandmother, who suffers from dementia. Her parents give her a salary of 6,000 yuan ($835) a month, which is considered a middle-class salary in her area.
"The reason I'm at home is because I can't take the pressure of going to school or going to work," Li told CNN. "I don't want to compete intensely with my peers. So I choose to be completely still," she said, using a popular phrase that refers to eschewing grueling work hours and traditional family values ??in favor of a simpler life.
Li is not alone in this trend. "Full-time children" is already a widespread practice in China.
Most of the tens of thousands of young people who identify as such on social media say they are returning home because they simply cannot find work. The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas reached 21.3% last month, a record high.
Sociologists say China's traumatic experiences with strict pandemic measures have contributed to many young people rethinking their life goals, and parents are supporting them. The desire to spend quality time with family, meditation on the meaning of life or the most important things in life have contributed to the choice of this lifestyle.
Ya-wen Lei, a professor of sociology at Harvard University, told CNN that she thinks the full-time baby boom won't last long.
