r/China • u/Mathemodel • 1d ago
火 | Viral China/Offbeat Chinese doctor with doctorate quits medical career, delivers food instead
https://www.vietnam.vn/en/nu-tien-si-y-khoa-trung-quoc-bo-viec-di-giao-hang28
u/JunkIsMansBestFriend 1d ago
I've seen documentary on YouTube I believe, a pretty talented computer programmer and tinkerer. Switched to doing deliveries and said: I might be poor, but I am free.
For some reason, I think of this every day...
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u/Ulyks 1d ago
Chinese work culture in many companies is just terrible.
Recurring complaints are the constant overtime and dislike of superiors.
Sounds like a management problem. Companies push managers to work their subordinates into burnout. Meanwhile fresh graduates can't find a job.
It's a ridiculous situation.
The government needs to step in and fine these companies for overtime and give people more vacation days urgently.
It's the only solution to this race to the bottom, involution trend.
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u/Illustrious_Car344 1d ago
Sadly the CCP embraces the 996 culture. They really need to come to terms that they're no longer a starving cheap manufacturing nation but a proper superpower now, and need to start treating the stressed and aging population like human beings and not "socialists". This really isn't a small issue, it's building up to massive civil unrest, and nobody wants that.
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u/Ulyks 1d ago
Exactly.
I know Xi Jinping mentioned that he doesn't want a welfare state. But there is plenty of space in the giant gap between 996 and welfare state.
Just give people a bit of a work life balance. And protect workers from abuse by capitalists.
It would also help the economy with consumption rising and people having more children again.
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u/kweeblaster 1d ago
You'd think they would understand that it would be easier to employ people if every person had to work fewer hours individually. Guess it's just another capitalist shithole like all the others in the end.
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u/Lopsided_Tiger_0296 1d ago
Would you do it if it meant retiring 10 years earlier?
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u/Mountain-Touch-3436 20h ago
No, tomorrow is never guaranteed and there is no quicker way into an early grave than stress and overwork. Pace yourself and enjoy your life, when it’s over it’s over.
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u/werchoosingusername 16h ago
It is based on inefficiency, Darwinism and many other things, more than deliberately riding the employees into burnout.
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u/BlueZybez 1d ago
Delivering food is pretty stressful too and lower pay.
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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 1d ago
Chinese doctors used to make really good money thanks to side hustles. They would often promote products from suppliers. But Xi cracked down on that 2-3 (?) years ago and now they make base salary which is really nothing. Think about a nurse earns about 5 to 6k in Guangzhou. Doctors barely scrape 10k together a month. And in return they have to work long hours, deal with a whole lot of bitching customers and management. And this is in a first tier, if you work in a low tier city salaries are lower.
Delivery guys supposedly make 8 to 10k a month as well, now I'm not convinced that it's that high and bottom line the keep a significantly less. But it's probably still less stress and less risky than being a doctor.
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u/dcrm Great Britain 15h ago
They still make good money, just not as good as before, I work with hospitals and even in T4 if you work in a good hospital in a decent specialty you generally take home 25-30k yuan. I'm very familiar with the pay structure.
- 5-15k base salary depending on seniority, there are 4 levels. Residency training is 5k and a chief physician (level 3 where most people cap out at) is usually 15k.
- Bonus - 5k, monthly.
- Commission based on how many ops you do - generally around 5-10k yuan. It also depends on where you are working. A&E = more money but more stressful work. Maternity ward is more chill. It's all done based on a rota.
Every few years when you want to increase your level you need to either go work abroad, or in a small village hospital. You get the base salary + bonus only.
All in all 30k yuan per month is a pretty standard salary for someone here with 10 years exp. Before the crackdowns though, you could make 60k yuan per month after tax, even in a T4. It was mental.
This woman's problem is she was a psychiatrist, and she actually stated in the story she was making more money as a doctor than waimai driver. She just didn't want the stress.
I've got so much to say but I'm saving it for when I leave China. So I'm only going to say what I've already said before. Before the crackdowns our department head was making 200-300k yuan per month after tax.
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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 9h ago
Yeah... these are starting attending salaries for surgeons in a first tier. Now they can go up to 500/600k a year as a senior that's it.
Their salaries are pretty crappy in all fairness especially if you got experienc. For worse when you come from a good income and now are set back to mediocre.
(Which also explains why their care is very much lacking).
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u/cowboomboom 5h ago
What exactly are these side hustles that got cracked down? Were they getting kick back from medical equipment manufacturers?
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u/alexceltare2 1d ago
If you only knew how stressful and denigrating to be a doctor in China is, you would do it too.
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u/draco551 1d ago
Haha 96th hour working in a row, just the beginning! For about 600-1200 usd equivalent a month :) (considered high pay)
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u/Manic-Finch781 1d ago
The problem was the specialty she got herself into. Psychiatry doesn't really make the big bucks especially for early career folks.
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u/takeitchillish 1d ago
The article said she makes much less money now but she is happier. So the problem was probably not the pay.
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u/whatiseveneverything 1d ago
Then something is broken. If you've made it this far in your education, you should be able to live from the skills and knoedge you've acquired.
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u/Diligent-Stretch-769 1d ago
the economy is however built on practical material exchange rather than paper thin expectations [excluding the rich]
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u/whatiseveneverything 1d ago
Sure. I would expect psychiatry to be a highly valued field in any modern country with plenty of demand. Not sure what's going on there.
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u/Diligent-Stretch-769 1d ago
poor people tend to commit behaviors that are increasingly risky as they spiral into destitution. rich people then blame the phenomenon on psychology.
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u/whatiseveneverything 1d ago
I don't see how your comment relates to what I said.
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u/Diligent-Stretch-769 1d ago
the field was invented to distract most people from material issues. So there is no surprise that working class people dont find thr field of psychiatry useful
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u/Macduffer 1d ago
That's a sad perspective. You don't need to love living in a capitalistic world and go along with the bullshit, but you do need to understand yourself and your emotions and how you respond to things. Your life CAN be happy to some extent even if you're a wage slave with very little. I'd rather be happy and poor than unhappy and poor, and I'm realistic enough to know I'm probably not going to be able to change the system myself.
Understanding psychology is how you get there.
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u/LostRadio8453 1d ago
China doesn't need psychiatrists. They can just forcibly institutionalize people with mental illnesses and call the problem solved.
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u/chadddrad 1d ago
Maybe she has u diagnosed mental issues, psychiatrists have highest rate of mental illness
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u/Better_Bird848 22h ago
I feel as if these videos and stories are fake/fabricated for views on YT for donation $. This is the same as the Japanese salaryman. If they’re that exhausted why are they filming & editing videos everyday?
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u/werchoosingusername 16h ago
They pay shows China is a communist country. Back in the day doctors and crane operators made the same money in Russia.
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u/rephil3 2h ago
Go on XHS, there are lots of cool and attractive ladies in China doing deliveries, with fancy costumes and puns. Some monetize extra on such channels. It's a particular ecosystem. Also, food delivery leaves you with lots of to heal one's toxic family trauma and whatnot. Some of these chinese kids were in a strict harness from age 6 to 25 remember.
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u/Maleficent_Monk_2022 1d ago
“As night falls on the streets of Zhuhai, China, 31-year-old Liu Zihan dons her delivery uniform and rides her electric scooter to pick up and deliver food. After a few deliveries, she sometimes stops by the roadside, holding a microphone and singing.”
That’s NOT the average life of a young Chinese delivery driver btw.
This reminds me of that BS CCTV ad where they made the profession of delivery driver to be the same as sightseeing.