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Homecoming dilemma for China's 'home-fear tribe'

2015-02-10 10:03 Xinhua Web Editor: Gu Liping
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Passengers wait for the departure of train 3805 from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, to Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 4, 2015. The 40-day travel frenzy known as chunyun, the hectic period through the Chinese lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 19 this year, began on Feb. 4 and will last until March 16. Train 3805 is the first chunyun train from Guangzhou. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Passengers wait for the departure of train 3805 from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, to Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 4, 2015. The 40-day travel frenzy known as "chunyun", the hectic period through the Chinese lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 19 this year, began on Feb. 4 and will last until March 16. Train 3805 is the first chunyun train from Guangzhou. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

A week away from the Chinese lunar new year, Xu Jun frets over the idea of homecoming.

Xu, a 32-year-old white-collar working in Beijing, said while he misses his loved ones in central China's Hubei Province, the "nightmare scenario" of having to deal with nagging relatives and attend classmates' "show-off reunion parties" freaks him out.

"I am unmarried and have no career worth boasting about, which is why I hesitate to buy a ticket home," Xu said, "and I hate the idea of giving expensive presents and money away as gifts to my relatives."

China kicked off its annual travel rush, known as "Chunyun", last week, with hundreds of millions heading home to celebrate the new year, but an increasingly large number of Chinese are pondering whether or not to make the homecoming. This group, dubbed the "home-fear tribe", are put off by family and societal pressure.

In a recent online poll titled "Why you choose not to go home this year" on a forum for Dongguan City, in south China's Guangdong Province, 37.5 percent of respondents said they "feel ashamed" when going back because they do not have a "decent" job. Dongguan is known as the "Factory of the World" and has a huge number of workers in its manufacturing sector.

Others cited "economic pressure" "forced blind dating" and "unattainable tickets" as the major factors that hold them back.

Experts attribute the phenomenon to a range of factors including generational differences in values, peer pressure and growing indifference towards traditional culture.

DILEMMA AMID FAMILY PRESSURE

While workers struggling in big cities crave the place they call home to relax and to alleviate their sense of loneliness, family pressures are often keeping them in a life adrift.

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