‘I please myself’: from top university graduate to farmer, woman in China earns one-tenth of old salary growing watermelons and finds happiness
- A woman in China with a prestigious degree and a strong career exits the corporate world to become a melon farmer, restarting a debate on work-life balance
- She quit her marketing jobs with leading online game developers 3 times over 5 years, each time without another job lined up
A 30-year-old woman in China with a master’s degree from a top university who quit a high-paying job to be a watermelon farmer has restarted a heated discussion on mainland social media about young people’s increased focus on work-life balance.
Identified with the alias Doudou, the watermelon farmer from Shandong province in eastern China who is at the centre of the debate said she wanted to “please” herself and to experience all there is in life, local news outlet Star Video reported.
Doudou said she had quit her marketing jobs with leading online game developers three times over five years, each time without another job lined up, before leaving the industry altogether.
She said the salaries were high, but she was always swamped and found her day-to-day work was filled with repetitive tasks.
“If I do a project or a job for a long time, I will feel bored. So I quit my job hoping to find something fresh to do,” Doudou said.
After Doudou quit her most recent marketing job in October last year, she decided to go and do farm work for a change of pace as being a farmer was high on her “life wish list”, she said.
