The 21-year-old ‘retiree’ who left China’s rat race for life in the rural mountains

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Hong Kong CNN —

Perched up against the edge of a cliff in China’s southwest Guizhou province is the bamboo shack 21-year-old “retiree” Liu Youwen built from scratch.

Three years ago, Liu left his rural hometown Xiaxixiang, Guizhou, for the city of Shantou in Guangdong, China’s richest province, joining a decades-long nationwide migration of workers from the countryside that has fueled the country’s enormous growth and created some of the world’s largest megacities.

But as a junior high dropout, it was tough for Liu to find a job. He said he was turned down by many factories due to his lack of credentials, before eventually finding work as a car mechanic, then a construction worker, and finally at a clothing factory.

Liu says he built his home from scratch in his mountainous hometown of Xiaxixiang.

Disillusioned by the grind of city life, at the end of 2022 he decided to call it quits and return to the rolling hills and rivers of Guizhou. Liu’s parents and older brother protested the move – but he wanted a “simple life,” he said, and to escape the high-pressure rat race.

“In the factory, I used to work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. plus overtime, my time was not my own,” Liu told CNN over the phone recently as he finished chopping up bamboo shoots. “Now I get to wake up to the sounds of birds chirping.”

Liu’s frustrations reflect a growing sense of disenchantment among young people in China, many of whom face a dire job market, burnout after years of grueling academic and work pressure, plus the traumatic impact of the country’s draconian former pandemic policies.

Acco