Most days, Chen Zi Jun begins her morning with Muay Thai or yoga before exploring temples or markets in the oppressive heat of northern Thailand.

This is a far cry from the relentless workload she left behind in China in her job as a video editor and director.

“The corporate culture at my previous company was relatively relaxed… (but) the workload was too high,” she tells ABC from her home in Chiang Mai.

“You have to develop ideas, write scripts, communicate with the different departments and clients, and then you film and edit until the video goes online.

“I was very tired, had to keep delivering, had no time to rest or learn anything new – this kind of work and life is not what I want.”

Feeling “tired at heart,” Ms. Chen decided to “quit naked” – a term coined by young Chinese social media users to mean that she left her job without having another one in sight.

She lived in New Zealand for a year on a working holiday visa and after a short time back in China decided to try life in Thailand.

“If I put in the same effort and got paid less, I would rather quit my job to try other types of work and lifestyle. I was putting in the same effort but earning less, so I decided to try other ways of earning money and a different lifestyle,” she says.

“When I was in New Zealand, I experienced a different lifestyle. When I returned to China, it was like waking up from a dream.

“You won’t find out how much you can win until you make the call.”

A relentless work culture does not pay off

China’s corporate culture, especially in the technology sector, is known for its relentless intensity.

The 996 concept normalizes the idea of ​​working six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

In 2019, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and one of China’s richest men, said those who committed to 996 would be rewarded for their hard work.

While such expectations may have been more acceptable to previous generations given the rapid growth of China’s economy, today’s millennials and Generation Z members see no benefit in them, says Fang Xu, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Initially… burnout brings tangible rewards, you get a high salary and then… if you come from a working class family, after a few years of ‘chīkǔ’ – suffering – you have the opportunity to move up into the upper middle class,” she told the ABC.

“My cohort, born in the early 80s, graduated from college in the early 2000s – that was the reality, many people of my generation made the jump.

“But for the generation born in the early 2000s and now entering the labor market, the 996 work modes would not bring as much material prosperity.”

Quitting naked, like “lying flat,” is one of several trends among Chinese youth that are emerging as their frustration with China’s work culture and career prospects grows.