More young Chinese fancy extreme sports

A man is snowboarding at Harbin Sunac Snow World, China on July 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Junbao)

Young Chinese people are showing increasing enthusiasm for extreme sports, an industry which has continued to grow in recent years, Chinanews.com reported on Feb.23.

Song Doubao (pseudonym), a computer engineer in her 30s, is one such fan. Every year, she spends about 60,000 yuan ($9,300) on diving, and 13,000 yuan on ski trips to resorts in Chongli district in Zhangjiakou, north China’s Hebei province.

Extreme sports lover Meng Rumeng founded an extreme sports club in 2017, hoping to arrange events and provide courses for extreme sports lovers. Despite a lack of advertising, her club has attracted many enthusiasts, over 80 percent of whom were beginners.

Compared with traditional sports, extreme sports are new and cool, said Pei Yunya, marketing director of an extreme sports company that has over 2.6 million registered users on its smart phone application.

Since their first appearance in China, extreme sports have seen burgeoning growth. China is now home to 4,000 companies related to rock climbing, with the industry registering growth for five consecutive years.

The year 2020 saw 789 newly-registered rock climbing companies, the biggest rise in the past five years, despite the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, according to data from Qichacha, a platform offering data and analytics on China-based private and public companies.

The country is also home to over 3,600 companies related to diving and 2,000 companies related to skiing. In 2020, the country saw 1,299 newly-registered diving companies, up by 152 percent year on year, and 514 new skiing companies, up by 55 percent.

According to the Winter Sports Development Plan (2016-2025), the number of Chinese people who practice winter sports regularly will exceed 50 million by 2025. By then, the winter sport industry is expected to see an output of 1 trillion yuan.

But do extreme sports have to cost the players an arm and a leg? Song doesn’t think so, revealing that the cost of diving in different destinations can vary from 3,000 to 30,000 yuan. And skiing in some regions near Beijing can cost as little as 300 yuan.

In terms of sports apparel and equipment, Weiwei (pseudonym), born in the 1980s, said that she prefers diving with her own equipment. Five years ago, she bought her own diving equipment for less than 20,000 yuan. With an annual income of about 200,000 yuan, Weiwei said it was not expensive for her.

Industrial internet sees rapid growth

Technicians with a company in Beibei district, southwest China”s Chongqing municipality, check the production and operation of workshop via an industrial internet platform, Sept. 15, 2020. (People”s Daily Online/Qin Tingfu)

In recent years, China has witnessed continuous breakthroughs in the development of industrial internet, which has enjoyed significant improvement in network capacity and accelerated integration with and application in more industries in greater depth, and become an increasingly strong driving force for various industries.

The country has established over 70 industrial internet platforms of considerable influence on certain sectors and regions. These platforms connect 40 million sets of industrial equipment in over 30 key sectors of China’s national economy.

Not long ago, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued an action plan for the innovative development of industrial internet from 2021 to 2023, making arrangements for priorities in work related to industrial internet in the next three years.

The following three years will be a crucial period of rapid growth of China’s industrial internet, according to Xu Xiaolan, head of the China Academy of Industrial Internet (CAII).

In the next three years, a batch of key technologies in such fields as networking, identification, platform, and security will achieve industrialization, and the country’s capacity for the supply of industrial chips, industrial software, and industrial control systems will be evidently improved, Xu explained.

Such breakthroughs in basic technological capabilities will further support the innovative development of China’s industrial internet, and lay a good foundation for the growth of new technologies, business forms and models, she pointed out.

The MIIT replaced its goal of basically establishing the infrastructure and industrial system for industrial internet set in the previous action plan on industrial internet development with the goal of advancing rapid and high-quality construction of new infrastructure for industrial internet, promoting new business forms and models on a large scale, and significantly improving the overall strength of industrial internet in the new action plan.

According to the action plan, the country intends to infuse vitality into the application of industrial internet in various industries while promoting the development of its industrial internet industry in a bid to advance the development of the industry in an all-round way, and create about 100 pilot demonstration cases for the application of new models in vertical sub-industries of industrial internet.

One of the highlights of the action plan lies in cultivating new business models for the growth of industrial internet, said Gu Weixi, an official with the CAII.

The action plan outlines the prospects of industrial internet from five aspects, including developing intelligent manufacturing, strengthening network-based collaboration, promoting personalized customization, extending services and realizing digital management.

China aims to develop a number of typical business models and application scenarios for the vertical sub-industries of individual internet, and replicate and promote them in at least 200 industrial enterprises by 2023, according to the action plan.

Bikeway in air benefits Xiamen commuters

An aerial view of an elevated bicycle lane in Xiamen, east China’s Fujian province. (Photo/Xiamen Daily)

A 7.6-kilometer-long elevated bicycle path in Xiamen, east China’s Fujian province, has brought great convenience to commuters while witnessing the city’s endeavors to promote green and low-carbon means of transport.

Lai Tingsi, a citizen in Huli district of Xiamen, is one of the commuters who have benefited a lot from the bikeway. The bikeway is also China’s first bicycle path built in the air and the longest elevated bike lane in the world.

Lai lives three kilometers away from where she works. Although the commute to work may not be long, it still distressed her.

“It takes too long to walk to work, and if I drove, it might take me more than half an hour as there are often traffic jams during the morning and evening rush hours. Besides, I would have to pay a considerable amount of parking fees if I parked my car near my office building,” Lai said.

Most of the time she commuted by bus, but buses are always packed during the rush hours, and it can be difficult to judge when a bus would come, according to Lai.

Fortunately, Lai found a new choice for commuting last year, thanks to the city’s innovative bike lane built in the air. Since she can cycle on the special lane for 2.7 kilometers of her commute distance, her commuting time has been shortened to less than 20 minutes.

“At first I just wanted to give it a try. I didn’t expect it to be so convenient and fast,” recalled Lai, who explained that there is no traffic light or motor vehicle on the dedicated lane.

The elevated bicycle path has adopted steel box girder structure and is mainly built on either side of the city’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, hanging around the middle section of the BRT lanes, according to Xiao Zhibiao, technical director of a municipal development company under Xiamen Municipal Construction Group.

The gate machines at the entrances of the bicycle path are equipped with a multi-sensor surveillance system. It can quickly identify bicycles, electric scooters, and motorbikes when they pass, thus ensuring bikes can pass through the entrances and run on the dedicated lane smoothly.

There are a total of 11 entries on the elevated bicycle lane, which help connect the path with not only the city’s BRT lanes, but also 11 regular bus stations and two subway stations.

Lai said she has gained a lot from cycling over the past more than one year. At first she merely rode a bike for the convenience of commuting, but she soon found that it is also a good form of exercise, Lai pointed out.

Lai becomes increasingly interested in cycling, she said, who added that besides commuting by bike, now she also enjoys touring around the city by bike in her spare time.

In recent years, Xiamen has made great efforts to improve its bike lane network. Taking into consideration key factors concerning Xiamen’s transport system, such as the natural environment of the coastal city, as well as its popular transportation means and layout of road network, the city has created a unique system of bicycle paths, Xiao noted.

“By building bicycle lanes, Xiamen aims to meet people’s needs for green and low-carbon transport,” Xiao said, adding that the city’s green and slow traffic system including bicycle lanes has witnessed constant improvement since it was created.

It’s believed that relevant authorities and government departments will provide citizens with greater transport resources and create better conditions for green and low-carbon transport through concept and technological innovation, Xiao stressed.

Spring Festival drives consumption boom

People visit an ancient town in Changxing County, Huzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Feb. 17, 2021. (People’s Daily Online/Wu Zheng)

The Spring Festival is an important period that gauges China’s economic vitality.

During the past 7-day Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, huge high-quality and upgraded consumption demand was released in the country, leading to thriving businesses of online shopping, house call services and short trips, as more and more residents tended to avoid physical contacts and aggregations, and turned to reserved and staggered leisure activities.

“I didn’t go out this Spring Festival, and instead I did some fitness practices at home. It felt good,” said Li Bin, a teacher with a college in Beijing’s Haidian District. In order to keep an hour of fitness practices each day, he specifically bought a treadmill, dumbbells and a yoga mat.

The sales of household goods witnessed robust growth during the Spring Festival, and the consumption of jewelries, cosmetics and flowers also surged during this period that coincided with the Valentine’s Day.

During the 7-day holiday, the sales of jewelries, garments, communication devices and home appliances of enterprises monitored by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) grew 160.8 percent, 107.1 percent, 39.0 percent and 29.9 percent year on year, respectively. The sales of fitness equipment on some e-commerce platforms surged 49 percent.

According to relevant departments, the number of people visiting shopping centers more than doubled in 10 first- and second-tier Chinese cities, reaching 86 percent of that in the same period two years ago.

Cai Xiang, who works for a construction enterprise in Changsha, central China’s Hunan Province used to bring home stuffs he bought every Spring Festival. However, it was never easy to carry big-size luggage on the road. This year, everything he bought for his parents was ordered online and shipped to his hometown in western Hunan, which he said was much more convenient.

China’s online shopping and express industries maintained operation during this year’s Spring Festival, which enabled people staying put and their families back in their hometowns to send each other new year gifts. An online Chinese New Year shopping festival was organized by the MOFCOM and local authorities, and the sales exceeded 120 billion yuan ($18.5 billion) in the first 6 days of the holiday.

As the application of 5G and 4K goes wider, more and more Chinese are spending the Spring Festival “on the cloud.” Yunnan, Guangdong, Hubei, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang and Tibet launched various online activities and issued online and offline coupons to benefit the residents. Besides, Beijing, Shenzhen and Suzhou gave out tens of millions yuan of digital red packets.

“It was safe and interesting to spend the holiday in a B&B,” said Tang Wei, a citizen from Shijingshan District, Beijing, who booked a B&B in the capital’s Shunyi District where he and his family had a taste of local Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner and visited surrounding scenic spots.

The “stay-put” Spring Festival also led to a rise in short trips. The number of visits in parks, tourist attractions, museums, theaters, and ski resorts across the country significantly climbed. There was also a boom in the reservation of hotels and B&Bs in city outskirts. Statistics indicate that the accommodation consumption in the Beijing’s suburban districts of Yanqing, Miyun and Huairou more than tripled during the Spring Festival, and that in Shanghai’s Chongming, Qingpu and Jiading also surged more than 200 percent.

Multiple Chinese films came out during the holiday and ignited theaters. During the Spring Festival, the box office of Chinese films exceeded 7 billion yuan, creating a historical high. The total box office crossed the 10-billion-yuan mark in just in the first one and a half months this year, close to half of the whole-year figure in 2020.

COVID-19 boosts sales of game consoles

The “homebody economy”, which has gained steam as people spend more time at home to curb the spread of COVID-19, has provided a boost to what are now brisk sales of game consoles, which follows an industry-wide boom in home entertainment amid the pandemic.

(Photo/pixabay.com)

Japan’s Nintendo Co., Ltd. revealed on Feb. 1 that it sold 24.1 million Switch game consoles in the last nine months of the 2020 financial year from March through to December, an increase of 35.8 percent over the same period the previous fiscal year. The company has now sold a total of 79.87 million Switch units worldwide, surpassing the Nintendo 3DS’ sales over its lifetime.

Its operating profit in the nine months ending Dec. 31 last year soared 98.2 percent from a year earlier to 521 billion yen ($4.98 billion), while its net profit surged 91.8 percent year-on-year to reach 376.6 billion yen ($3.6 billion). The company’s overall sales revenue for this period reached 1.4 trillion yen ($13.4 billion), with overseas sales revenue accounting for 77.6 percent of the total.

In the late 1980s, Nintendo’s Famicom consoles were introduced into the Chinese market and soon became a hit with Chinese gamers. Since then, related video game franchises, such as Super Mario, Contra, Street Fighter, Adventure Island, and The Legend of Zelda, have become popular among gamers in China.

The popularity of gaming consoles, including those of Nintendo, can be attributed to the interactive features and long-term playability of its games.

Compared with mainstream mobile games and online games, console games are better able to offer interactive and immersive experiences for multiple gamers. According to Nintendo, a majority of its top 10 most popular games are multiplayer games.

For example, gamers can create and share side-scrolling Super Mario courses in Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch, whose elements greatly enhance the multiplayer gaming experience.

The sales revenue generated by China’s gaming industry increased 20.7 percent year-on-year to reach 278.69 billion yuan ($43.2 billion) in 2020. Last year, the country’s online gaming industry maintained its rapid growth momentum amid the pandemic.

China to push equal vaccine distribution

COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government to Pakistan arrive in Islamabad, capital of the country, Feb. 1. (Photo courtesy of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan)

China announced earlier that it would provide 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX to meet the urgent needs of developing countries, showing a strong sense of responsibility at such a critical moment.

It is another major move of China to promote equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, push ahead international anti-pandemic cooperation and put into practice the vision of building a community of common health for mankind.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), recently warned that the unfair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide would cause severe impacts.

He called on countries to work together in solidarity to ensure that within the first 100 days of this year, vaccination of health workers and older people is underway in all countries.

China also attaches great importance to the difficulties facing the practical implementation of COVAX, in particular the huge vaccine supply gap in February and March.

Back in May 2020, China promised that COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, would be made a global public good, which would be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

A batch of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government to Pakistan had arrived in the latter’s capital Islamabad on Feb. 1. It was the first batch of vaccines provided by the Chinese government to a foreign country.

Besides Pakistan, China is providing aid in the form of COVID-19 vaccines to 13 developing countries including Brunei, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Palestine, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Equatorial Guinea, and will aid 38 more developing countries in need of COVID-19 vaccines.

Containing the COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most pressing task for the international community, and China has kept its promise in a way that addresses the urgent need of the world.

Tom Fowdy, a British political and international relations analyst, commented that China’s vaccines are the products that most of the world will accept.

Chinese vaccines could offer a lifeline to developing countries, according to an article recently published on The New York Times.

The international society has widely acknowledged the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines. They are considered reliable by clinical trials in multiple countries, as well as reports published on The Lancet.

Preliminary statistics indicate that over 40 countries have shown intention to import Chinese vaccines, and some countries have approved the use of China’s vaccines.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan led by example to take COVID-19 vaccines; Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic waited for the first batch of Chinese vaccines in cold wind at an airport apron; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera attended the ceremony for the arrival of Chinese vaccines.

Foreign countries believe that Chinese vaccines have shed light at the end of a tunnel. They say the safe, sure, and secure vaccines came at a time when they were going through the most difficult period and needed them the most. These comments expressed their gratitude for the Chinese assistance, as well as their confidence in the Chinese vaccines.

The pandemic tests the conscience of governments and examines how countries balance between justice and benefits.

It can never be overemphasized that wealth is not a criterion for judging whether a person can enjoy the right to life and health.

To uphold fairness and justice requires making vaccines a public product accessible and affordable to people in developing countries and providing assistance for countries and regions that are relatively vulnerable to the pandemic.

Viruses know no borders. To defeat the pandemic, mankind must rely on science and rationality, promote the spirit of humanitarianism, and fight against it with the most powerful weapons – solidarity and cooperation.

Delivery services boost rural industries

A courier (left) in Suixi County, Huaibei, east China’s Anhui Province picks parcels at a corn processing enterprise in Chenlou village, Suntuan Township, June 8, 2020. (People’s Daily Online/Wan Shanzhao)

The rapid development of express delivery services in rural areas is tremendously facilitating China’s rural industries.

Statistics indicate that over 30 billion express packages were shipped to and from China’s rural regions last year, and the exchange of industrial products and farm produce between urban and rural areas totaled 1.5 trillion yuan ($232 billion). The use of express delivery services was improved in the sales of potatoes, sweet potatoes and corns.

In 2020, express delivery outlets have been established in almost all Chinese townships and over 50 percent of Chinese villages. They not only vitalized the development potential of rural industries, but also released the consumption potential of farmers, said Liu Jiang, a researcher with the Development and Research Center of the State Post Bureau.

River snail rice noodle, a local specialty of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has been enjoying huge popularity across China in recent years. It has grown into a business of 10 billion yuan in Liuzhou, the second largest city of the autonomous region.

Last year, Liuzhou sold 10.5 billion yuan of packed river snail rice noodle, and its daily production reached 3.25 million bags. More than 77.6 million parcels were shipped by China Post, up 142.7 percent from a year ago.

Baile village, Taiyangcun Township of Liuzhou is home to massive sweet bamboos from which pickled bamboo shoots, a major ingredient for the river snail rice noodle, are made. According to Huang Yugui, who runs a sweet bamboo plantation base in the village, the pickled bamboo shoots produced in the village are sold to all parts of the country. “We ship pickled bamboo shoots almost every day, and sometimes we ship more than 1,000 kilograms a day,” he told People’s Daily.

To assist the development of the river snail rice noodle industry, major express delivery companies have established outlets in villages and take relevant orders as a priority. They even tailored exclusive shipping routes for the business.

“Seventy to eighty percent of our business is related to the industry, and the industry is now a new growth point for Liuzhou’s express delivery,” said Xu Zhifang, head of Liuzhou Municipal Postal Administration.

“Before express delivery companies set up outlets in our village, we had to go to the township to sell the picked bamboo shoots,” Huang introduced. Now, the express delivery outlets in the village are enabling the man to ship his products to everywhere, and his annual income also surged from 60,000 yuan to 90,000 yuan.

Since the last year, the Postal Administration of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has been actively promoting express delivery services in rural areas. It carried out in-depth cooperation with market entities such as rural cooperatives, improved terminal logistics networks, and improved service capabilities, to further vitalize the rural economy.

Last year, the autonomous region sold 1.08 billion yuan of farm produce through postal and express delivery services. The shipping volume of passion fruits, duck eggs and other local specialties also surpassed 10 million pieces.

According to China’s State Post Bureau, the country will keep enhancing efforts to bring express services to villages, striving to cover all villages in the east with direct express services before the end of this year. Meanwhile, 80 percent of administrative villages in central China and 60 percent in the west will also be offered such services.

Beijing 2022 to supply clean electricity

To realize the vision of making the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games the first Olympic Games in history at which all venues are powered by green and renewable energy, the State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company has developed new facilities to supply the event with reliable and green electricity, cctv.com has reported.

This photo taken on December 15, 2020 shows the National Speed Skating Oval, also known as “Ice Ribbon”, in Beijing. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiao)

The company took the lead in issuing principles and technical standards on the construction of electric power facilities. So far, all 28 supporting electricity projects in the competition zones have been put into use.

The projects will transmit green electric power generated by a grid project in Zhangbei county of Zhangjiakou city to the Beijing grid to make sure all venues of Beijing 2022 are supplied with green electricity.

In Yanqing, a competition area of the games, green energy and smart monitoring technologies have been widely applied to guarantee operation of the venues and supporting facilities, and provide convenient services for athletes and tourists.

Songyan smart road is an important channel for the games. Equipped with an early warning system of blind spots in curves, the smart road will strengthen the emergency response capacity and traffic safety of the Yanqing competition zone.

In addition, the construction of the Yanqing competition zone has promoted water saving during snow making for the National Alpine Ski Center from the very beginning. The National Alpine Ski Center has built two ponds and a reservoir to store melt snow and collect rainwater.

Spring Festival shopping goes online

Hosts sell local specialties during a livestream show in an e-commerce industrial park in Shanggao county, Yichun, east China’s Jiangxi province, Jan. 25, 2021. (People’s Daily Online/Zhou Liang)

Spring festival shopping, a long-established tradition of the Chinese during the Chinese New Year, is now taken online for better control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An online Chinese New Year shopping festival has been launched by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) in collaboration with the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other relevant departments.

The event, lasting from Jan. 20 (the eight day of the twelfth month in Chinese Lunar calendar) to Feb. 18 (the seventh day of the new year in Chinese Lunar calendar), is offering a safe and assuring place for consumers to make New Year purchases. Major e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and Suning, have placed conspicuous banners of the festival on their front pages to attract consumers.

Tong Ming, 27, works in the advertisement industry in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province. To make her luggage as light as possible is an important task for the woman who has to travel a long distance to get home for the Spring Festival each year. Therefore, Tong made her New Year purchases online, which she says is also contributing to COVID-19 control as it reduces unnecessary human traffic.

“It lightens my luggage and also ensures that my friends and relatives receive my gifts,” she said, adding that the preferable prices, product diversity and quality of online shopping were also the reasons for her to make New Year purchases online.

According to Qian Fangli, Director General of the Department of E-commerce of MOFCOM, Traditional Spring Festival shopping, reunions, dinner parties and calls and visits to temple fairs, though fixtures of the season, might pose transmission risks from congregation.

In view of this, MOFCOM will guide related businesses to ensure adequate supplies of essentials, such as rice, flour, cooking oil, meat, eggs, vegetables, milk and instant food, as well as anti-epidemic supplies like masks, disinfectants, and disposable gloves and meet consumers’ trading up demand by introducing more customized, smart, green and quality products.

The ministry will also further enrich and cover consumption scenarios in cities and the countryside, online and offline and at-home and in-store, among others, with virtual services that highlight traditional festivities, she introduced.

For example, special virtual activities such as festival shopping, market trips, cloud dining and greetings will be organized. Traditional branded and quality restaurants will be enlisted to provide home deliveries of meals for Chinese New Year’s Eve, weddings and birthdays. Supporting services that run throughout the Spring Festival holiday will be provided to enable happy and cheerful celebrations at home.

Imported commodities are in sufficient supply during the 2021 Chinese New Year Shopping Festival. The numbers of participating merchants and commodities on Taobao registered a record high this year, and Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platforms Tmall Global and Kaola are also presenting imported commodities from over 80 countries. During the Spring Festival, 260 stores of Hema Xiansheng, Alibaba’s grocery brand, will be kept open. Besides, online grocer Dmall is also stacking up its inventory of imported food for the upcoming Spring Festival.

It is reported that multiple express delivery companies, including Alibaba’s Cainiao, will maintain operation in over 200 cities between Feb. 4 and Feb. 19 (the Spring Festival holiday lasts from Feb. 11 to 17) to ensure delivery of orders during the festival. In addition, Tmall and Cainiao will also provide subsidies of more than 200 million yuan ($31 million) for frontier logistics workers.

Young Chinese embrace new professions

Using a script and props and adjusting the angle for the lighting, beauty vlogger Yu Yihan began shooting his video.

Born after 1995, Yu chose to turn his hobby into a career and became a full-time beauty vlogger, a new occupation thanks to social changes and technological progress.

People attend a job fair at the Hongshan Gymnasium in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, Dec. 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

The young man began to shoot videos when he was in college. Back then, a video of his usually gained only a few hundred views, until one he uploaded before graduation went viral online. The success encouraged him to embrace the new occupation.

Yu is one of many who have joined a new profession. According to a report, people who were born after 1990 accounted for 50 percent of the practitioners of new occupations in 2019, while those who were born after 1995 made up over 22 percent. New professions have brought more choices for young Chinese in the job market.

New professions means greater development potential and prospects and are popular among young people who exhibit innovation and risk taking, said Huang Jingbao, a professor from the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A survey of 2,000 young people indicated that 96.1 percent said they would engage in new occupations if they had the opportunity, while 62.5 percent of the respondents believed that new occupations could motivate workers to improve themselves.

Many young Chinese people have embraced “slash” careers, pursuing portfolio careers.

A survey of 1,988 people aged between 18 and 35, conducted by the newspaper China Youth Daily, found that 52.3 percent of the young people said they have friends who have adopted a slash career. Another report suggested that the number of people with slash careers in China had exceeded 80 million in 2019.

Lili in her 30s is among the “slashie” generation. The woman, who works in a first-tier city in China, defines herself as a health adviser and dance teacher.

“As a dance teacher, I have flexible teaching arrangements and a lot of spare time. I also know how to maintain good health, which means I can offer health consultations online,” Lili said, explaining why she juggles both jobs. Being a slashie not only brings the joy of refreshment, but also more income and opportunities, said the young woman.

Some young Chinese opt for side jobs, because they do not want to quit their hobbies and full-time jobs that guarantee stable income, while others believe that they can cultivate more hobbies and hone different skills by adopting a slash career, said Jin Ge, a researcher with Peking University.

Huang attributed the popularity of slash careers to the application of new technologies in the internet era, which makes telecommuting possible so that young people can secure multiple side jobs in their spare time.

While many young people are embracing new professions and pursuing multiple side jobs, some quit their jobs very shortly after starting.

A study by employment-related social media platform LinkedIn showed that Chinese workers who were born after 1995 stay at their first job for just seven months, and those who were born after 1990 an average of 19 months, while those who were born after 1980 stay for about three-and-a-half years.