April Zhang

Opinion | How being ‘full-time children’ is helping China’s ‘chicken babies’ grow up

These mostly only children are taking care of their parents’ needs instead of their own wants, as the priority shifts from passing exams to being of service to family

This is a genuine opportunity for young people to mature, and for a parenting rethink: what used to work no longer does in a changing China

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A customer at a supermarket in Renhuai, Guizhou province, on June 9. In taking over grocery shopping and other household chores, “full-time children” are finally having down-to-earth experiences. Photo: Xinhua

April Zhang

Published: 5:30am, 27 Sep 2023

My niece was a “full-time daughter” long before the term existed. After graduating with a degree in electronics in June 2021, and with no job offers, she went home to live with her parents. She studied hard for the postgraduate entrance exam that year but didn’t pass.

From then until late August 2022, when she found a job as a tech support assistant, her calendar was blank for the first time in her life. She helped her parents clean, cook and shop for groceries, and got a modest allowance while taking time to find a job.

She could have been included among China’s “full-time children”, a category of adults who choose “lying flat” to get out of the rat race. But I see a different story with her.

The phenomenon of “full-time children” is a result of China’s high youth unemployment. It refers to young adults with no full-time job, who live with their parents and get paid for doing housework. Tens of thousands have identified as “full-time children” on social media.

Their emergence is an indication that young people face shrinking opportunities in an economy that previously had high growth for decades, enriching the generations now supporting their young. It is also connected with a disillusionment among fresh graduates, some of whom chose to take zombie-like graduation photos to show their disenchantment.