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'I can't find a job so my parents are paying me to stay home and be a full-time child'
Chinese photographer Litsky Li has joined legions of other young Chinese graduates moving back in with their families to help with chores and looking after the elderly.
China has been turning to a peculiar practice to help youngsters battle unemployment and at the same time handle the pressure of an ageing population.
Photographer Litsky Li, 21, is one of a growing number of fellow high school graduates who accepted her parents' offer of a guaranteed monthly wage to be a "full-time kid."
The increasingly popular approach has seen legions of youngsters forego a traditional career in exchange for living at home, taking care of the daily chores and looking after the elderly.
Ms Li said she did not want to "compete intensely" with other people her age while looking for a job and instead opted to "lie flat", a popular phrase used to describe living a more simple life away from gruelling working hours.
She now spends her days grocery shopping for her family, looking after the home and acting as carer for her elderly grandmother who suffers from dementia.
Young Chinese workers are picking up offers to be paid by their parents to stay home (Image: GETTY)
In exchange for her work, her parents pay her a monthly salary of £649 (6,000 yuan).
Ms Li told CNN: "The reason why I am at home is because I can’t bear the pressure of going to school or work.
"I don’t want to compete intensely with my peers. So I choose to ‘lie flat’ completely. I don’t necessarily need a higher-paid job or a better life."
She is part of a growing community of so-called "full-time sons and daughters", a label that first appeared on the Chinese social media platform Douban only a few months ago.
But rather than being driven to a simpler life with their families, many youngsters said unemployment is the main reason why they are increasingly staying home.
The full-time sons and daughters help with house chores and look after their elders (Image: GETTY)
According to the latest data available from June, unemployment among 16 to 24 years olds hit 21.3 percent in urban areas, a record high for China.
The economic struggles of younger Chinese workers are just the latest headache Beijing has been left grappling with since the coronavirus pandemic.
Domestic consumption has significantly dropped since 2020 as the economy struggles to return to pre-pandemic rates, private businesses have retreated and the property market has significantly been lagging.
And with the "lying flat" trend becoming increasingly popular, economists have suggested the true jobless rate could be even higher than what data has shown in recent months.
Peking University professor Zhang Dandan estimated that the true rate could have been as high as 46.5 percent in March once the number of full-time children is included in the calculations.
Competition for jobs has become brutal after the pandemic (Image: GETTY)
Online communities have been spreading bringing together young Chinese who have joined in with the new trend, with more than 40,000 posts bearing the “full-time sons and daughters" hashtag appearing on the popular lifestyle site Xiaohongshu since last year.
The movement has mostly appealed to younger generations in their 20s who no longer follow the same approach as their predecessors when it comes to getting ahead in the workplace.
Rather than focussing on their studies and working hard, spending little time at home and still relying on their families, the full-time children are more family and home-oriented while not bowing to the pressure of full-time employment.
Ms Li added: "If you look at us from a different perspective, we are no different than the young people who have a job.
"They go to work in cities and earn a monthly salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan (£326 to £435). But they can’t support themselves at all.
"They still eat at their parents’ house, live with them or have them pay for their apartments or cars. Their living expenses are partially paid by parents."
Nancy Chen also turned to the newborn profession after China's strict post-Covid measures put an end to her career as a tutor as private companies were hit by a regulatory crackdown campaign.
'I can't find a job so my parents are paying me to be a full-time kid'
Chinese photographer Litsky Li has joined legions of other young Chinese graduates moving back in with their families to help with chores and looking after the elderly.
www.express.co.uk