27-year-old master of computer science stopped to Da Lisi: he was afraid to tell his parents why he couldn't get a job.

Last winter, in a post-graduate computer study at a major university in Beijing, people leave school on time every morning. Mr. Ma, 27 years old (in English, spelling Ma Yongjian), left his dormitory and went to the park to see the stray cat. He didn't fail the exam, he didn't get expelled from school. Based onAn interview with the Wall Street Journal on October 13th.He stopped his studies on his own initiative, because of the rapid entry of artificial intelligence into the software development market and the steady reduction of the number of jobs in the technology company, which made him no longer convinced that he would find a decent job after master ' s studies.

He didn't even tell his parents where he was going. Parents are doctors in Gansu small town and have long regarded academic achievement as a reliable way of changing fate; The son's entrance from primary school to Beijing University is in line with the successful path that was understood by the previous generation. Today, there is a sudden break in commitment between learning and work, and he is reluctant to leave his parents to worry and has difficulty explaining why he left a path that had once made his family proud. He moved to Yunnan Daly, where he did not have to compete with the people around him for the first time: sleeping lazyly, cooking, working out, playing cards with his friends. This laxity did not last long, and a few months later he began to worry about an income-free future. Parents can provide maintenance but cannot keep him forever.

The size of Chinese graduates in 2026 is estimated at about 12.7 million, an increase from the previous year.Beijing University's job fair in March this year.Job-seekers are queued in front of the business stalls with their curricula vitae, many of which come from the manufacturing, technology and finance sectors. It was a photograph of Mr. Ma's choice: thousands of young people were still trying to squeeze into established professional paths, while horses left the team first. This is not to say that students at the job fair are unable to find jobs, or to extend the mentality of a graduate student to all young people, but rather to the real conflict of increasing investment in education and increasingly unpredictable employment outcomes.

Unemployment rate of youth in towns aged 16 to 24 years, published by the National Statistical Office of ChinaIn August 2026, nearly 19 per cent of the students were not included in the statistical calculus. By placing this percentage with 12.7 million graduates, it is understandable that the pressure to find jobs not only exists in the number of curricula vitae but also in the family relationships and self-evaluation of young people. Higher education, but not more jobs; Enterprises are willing to recruit experienced people who can generate immediate profits, while inexperienced supremacists bear the first costs of automation and attrition.

The role of artificial intelligence is particularly complex. Beijing included AI in the core of national competition, promoting deployment through financial, economic and technological policies; Internet companies also use tools to improve production efficiency. Technological progress could have brought productivity dividends, but the cost savings did not necessarily translate into new jobs. Enterprises can hire fewer guest uniforms, paperwork, junior programmers and administrative assistants, while industrial policy will continue to keep model numbers, investment projects and technological breakthroughs in writing. The report of technological success is bright, and the trust of a young person in life may be diminished at the same time.

Another young man from Dali was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.I'm sorry. After completing her design studies, she worked for several months in an enterprise and found that her work had been taken by her superiors and left; It then depends on selling handicrafts for its livelihood. Rather than simply “slept down”, she chose to replace the job world with less income but more autonomous space. The migration of many young people, free employment and low-consumption life are survival arrangements that have been created after the formal labour market has failed to deliver on its promises.

Mr. Ma subsequently left Dauri and travelled in Indonesia, where he remained undecided. This end is not like a traditional inspirational story: no counter-attack, no big job employment notice, and no one declared that he had found meaning in life. But it is worth writing it down in earnest because it did not end the victory demanded by the official propaganda. The State can constantly call on young people to believe in technology, in struggle, and in economic prospects; If education, housing, social security and job opportunities do not give them the most basic of self-reliance, this political discourse is slowly rejected from the day-to-day experience by a young person who is afraid to give his parents a new face.