Young people who don t want to celebrate the New Year, hide back at work

Visual China.

Text |The Chief Character View, by |Wei Wei, Xiao Yao, edNot yet.

For example, a migrant worker in a first-tier city may usually hate each other with work, but on the good day of the Chinese New Year, they will resolutely choose a fierce son to plunge into the work, and even volunteer to work overtime to escape all kinds of troubles caused by this.

Some people lamented that if you have to stay at home for a nine-day holiday, it is not too short but too long.

In Douban, in the "Don't want to go home, don't want to celebrate the festival" group, on the 30th day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, some people are laughing at themselves for being "um", some people are communicating with each other about the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner that they don't want to go home, what takeout to order, and some people temporarily refund the train ticket home.

Human beings create urban civilizations, and different urban cultures in turn shape individual lives. In the name of "going home for the New Year", when people from different cities and professions are brought together, young people who don't want to celebrate the New Year hide back at work to find their comfort zone.

Here's their story

I am a buyer of an e-commerce company, and on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, I am still "sticking to my post".

For example, I sorted out the materials for the next report, looked at the data of my peers, and learned about the new policies of each platform in 2024.

Obviously, this is not a must-do job. On the 28th and 29th of the lunar month, after working at home with a computer for two days, I couldn't find any work to continue doing.

Staying in Shenzhen to work overtime is an unplanned thing. Originally, I grabbed a train ticket back to my hometown Henan, but on February 4, I refunded the high-speed rail ticket I had just "grabbed" because I had a big fight with my parents because of a relationship.

In the eyes of my parents, my boyfriend and I are far from each other: for example, I am a returnee graduate student, he has not even finished junior high school, I am an urban hukou, he is a rural hukou, and even he and I are both 169cm tall has become a critical dimension for my mother.

What is even more unacceptable to them is that my boyfriend and I are both unmarried. In our view, the law does not protect love, but is only a system of human social structure.

Because of these things, my parents and I have had countless arguments. Whenever I tried to convince my mom that my boyfriend, although he didn't have a higher education, had a skill, my mom would use an unreasonable killer trick: You are so powerful, why can't you afford to buy a house in Shenzhen!

I was so angry that I couldn't refute it, so I coped with it by temporarily closing the window of communication until I could prove to my parents that I could live well.

Two days later, I sent a message to my family informing them that they needed to stay in Shenzhen for work and could not return to their hometown in Henan. A day later, my parents finally got back to me with just two simple words: OK.

If you don't go back for the New Year, you don't have to give red envelopes to relatives and children, and you can save money. "After receiving a reply from my parents, I patted my boyfriend on the shoulder to comfort him.

In fact, the people of my age who stayed in my hometown are all married and have children, and when they come home for the Chinese New Year, they mainly date friends who are also working outside the home.

It is a difficult thing to confront the structure. But I still want to try. After three days of "hiding" at work, I decided to take advantage of the holiday to drive with my boyfriend to a small town in Fujian.

And work is both the way I fight and the outlet for my resistance.

I'm a new editor. In the past, my life code was that no one really loves their work. But recently, my life has changed significantly: questioning work, understanding work, embracing work.

Due to the nature of the industry, I returned from Beijing to my hometown of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, a week before the Chinese New Year's Eve, to work from home. At first, I was not satisfied with this arrangement: why do I have to work when I go home?

But I soon realized that working from home was also a good thing for me: I could avoid being at the table with everyone when my relatives came to my house.

It all started with my special diet. As a Mongolian living in Inner Mongolia, I don't eat pigs, cows, sheep, or chickens.

It meant that most of the dishes at the dinner were out of touch with me, and it meant that, from the moment I showed up at the table, whatever they were saying would stop and watch me until I took my first bite.

The same is true when leaving, when they pause the conversation and keep asking at the back of me leaving, "Have you eaten enough?" ”

Eaten. "I didn't even dare look back at their eyes. Although I tried my best to comfort myself that this was an expression of love from my loved ones, I still felt a lot of pressure on my body. As a deep social phobia, I don't like to be noticed, especially more than two people, which makes me feel my scalp tingle.

Fortunately, I soon found a solution to the problem: I hid in the house under the pretext of working overtime to avoid showing up at dinner.

This makes it possible to be undisturbed by anyone who comes to visit, from day to dark. Only occasionally do I come out of my room to eat and go to the bathroom, but I try to speed up as much as I can, especially when I go back, pretending that I am busy with work and need to go back urgently.

And I don't know if it's because no one is distracted, and I spend more time at work (sometimes even after work, I will volunteer to work overtime because I don't want to go out of the room), but my work efficiency is actually quite high, roughly estimated to be at least 15 times.

Every relative who asked me about my "whereabouts" almost always sighed at me when they got my mother's reply that "she was at work and had to go up until the Chinese New Year's Eve", and then turned their gaze to the others present, trying to find the next person to pay attention to. Every time I hear a change in the subject matter in my room, I secretly breathe a sigh of relief: "Dodge".

As for how to face the Chinese New Year, I haven't thought about it yet. The next excuse was brewing in my head, though.

I am the ** chain manager of a fast-moving consumer goods company, usually working in Shanghai, and recently returned to my hometown Taiyuan.

On February 6th, my vacation began, but on February 9th, I had already found a coffee shop with my laptop and started voluntary overtime.

Don't get me wrong, my family relationship is harmonious, and my daily mother's kindness and filial piety are just the details of life in Taiyuan, which makes me feel gloomy.

For example, if I read a book at home and be seen by relatives and friends who come to visit my home, everyone will make a fuss and praise me for loving learning, but in fact, this is just my way of life, walking in the subway, passers-by move at a speed like walking, in the cold wind, even with a hint of rust.

After a long time, I felt at a loss.

The consumer world does not allow 'boredom' to exist, and consumer culture strives to eliminate it, according to the definition of consumer culture, a happy life is insulated from a boring life". One of the goals of this is to preserve the ethics of work and to make people abandon the pursuit of freedom.

In Work, Consumerism, and the New Poor, author Bowman explains my mindset this way.

Indeed it is. But for now, compared to the "boring life" in my hometown, I still prefer to find my own identity at work.

It's time to find some joy with the help of work.

By the way, before going to the coffee shop to work overtime on February 9, I didn't forget to bring my girlfriends who had just rushed home from Beijing for the Chinese New Year.

From the moment I pushed the door and walked into the coffee shop, my girlfriend and I smiled, because it was obviously full of people who had "returned home" and then hid to work overtime.

What everyone has in common is a laptop in front of them, a cup of American or pour-over coffee in front of each person, and an intently stare at the screen in front of them. We quickly settled in, and that's the familiar life.

My girlfriend and I were high school classmates, and our school was a boarding school. Ten years ago, we went to study together after breakfast, and now, ten years later, we continue to go to work at the coffee shop after breakfast together.

The table next door also brought a bit of atmosphere to my "memory killing". She claimed to work at an investment bank in Shanghai, and she was frowning and writing PPT when I was calculating the factory plan for 2024 against the data.

In addition to offline office, I also share the joy of "overtime" with my friends who also stick to their posts, and blow rainbow farts to each other.

Emoji share with me. ”

On the afternoon of February 9, when I shared a screenshot of the conversation urging my boss to join me at work, she quickly replied to me. Obviously, she needs the same meme to "drag" her boss out of her holiday life.

We are the ones who want to be rich women. "On the evening of February 9, my girlfriend and I finished work one after another, and fully affirmed each other's future. Although, in the eyes of outsiders, we are more like the "doglegs" of the boss.

Perhaps, this is the joy of being a "good student".