Chinese jobless adopt fake work routines to hide unemployment from families

A growing number of unemployed Chinese are using social media to exchange advice on how to appear employed, posting daily itineraries that keep family members unaware of their joblessness. Content on the Instagram-like RedNote app, Douyin and Weibo has attracted over 70 million, 610 million and 320 million views respectively, suggesting the behavior is common. The practice emerges amid a deteriorating labor market, with manufacturers cutting wages and staff while workloads increase, and a lingering property slump that has strained local finances.

Scholars note that pretending to work allows individuals to save face and eases collective discontent, supporting the government's goal of balancing automation with social stability. Posts often describe spending days in libraries, parks or cafés, echoing coping tactics from South Korea and Japan during the 1990s Asian financial crisis. Researchers warn that China's thin safety net could eventually make the ruse unsustainable as unemployment persists.