What the emergence of ‘full-time children’ tells us about modern China
- There is a growing trend for young adults who cannot find a job returning to live with their parents – often doing chores in exchange for an allowance
- Such an arrangement is supposed to be temporary, but high youth unemployment coupled with an ageing population is a recipe for trouble in future
The notion of “full-time children” or “paid children” – a reference to young adults who do not have a full-time job and live with their parents – has triggered heated debate in China in recent months.
They provide services such as housework in exchange for financial support from their parents and in some cases may carry on with their studies or try to find a job.
Many of the discussions and media reports about the phenomenon focus on the struggles these young people face and why they have made such an unconventional choice, especially those with good educations.
Some full-time children said they are tired of the competitive working environment, long working hours and high living costs in the big cities. But for many the reason is more obvious: they cannot find a job even if they want one and so they return home to live with their parents.
Since people in their twenties and thirties are mostly only children, their parents are often delighted to spend time with them. Some parents also give them living allowances, sometimes amounting to thousands of yuan a month.
A typical day includes cooking, shopping for their parents, taking them to see a doctor if they are unwell and planning weekend trips.
While some social media posts by these full-time children describe an idyllic lifestyle of leaving the hamster wheel of the working life, many also talk about their struggles, such as their anxiety and the pressure from their parents or relatives to find a proper job and get married.
Most young people and their parents see the arrangement as a temporary solution in between jobs, and a last resort when there is no alternative.
For example, a woman from Shaanxi wrote in an online forum for full-time children late last year that she had been unable to find a job after graduating from an Australian university in July, and had ended up cooking dinners for her parents in exchange for a monthly allowance of 3,000 yuan (US$420).
She spent the rest of her day reading novels, but she still hoped she could find a job eventually.
Many of these parents seem to be in their sixties or early seventies and are in good health, but in some cases young people have to quit their jobs to take care of ailing parents.
“These three years I am either taking my father or mother to see the doctor. I am not earning any money and I rely on my parents. It is quite shameful and therefore I don’t have any social life apart from chatting online,” an internet user from Jilin wrote in the same forum in January.
This year some 11.58 million university graduates entered the workforce in China, while in June the unemployment rate for people aged between 16 and 24 reached a record high of 21.3 per cent.
While there are hopes this second figure may start falling, Liu Yuanchun, president of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, warned that youth unemployment has become a structural problem that needs to be addressed now or it may turn into a political problem.
Many of those reaching retirement age only have one child, meaning a married couple will have to support four elderly people.
For full-time children it may only be a temporary arrangement, but it is buying time for China. It would be unhealthy for this situation to remain in place 10 years later, when their parents are likely to be approaching the age of 80 and may really need full-time care. A solution for both the young and old generations has to be found soon.
