Resignation and having an unstable job enable a woman to work at her will

"What surprises me is that every single person I met after my 'naked resignation' (quitting work without another job to go to) is nice," Zhang Ximeng said. After graduating from a first-tier university, she worked for various companies before eventually landing a job with an annual salary of nearly 300,000 yuan ($43,600) in Shanghai. However, she decided to quit last year.

The job involved writing copy for a leading advertising agency, but she was quarantined at home for three months during the COVID-19 epidemic last year, and she began to question the meaning of her life as she spent hours staring at the screen of her laptop as messages jumped out saying "Please make another revision".

Some young people working in large cities like Zhang even sacrifice their health for work — only sleeping a few hours a day, with no time to exercise and fretting because of work or financial pressures.

Zhang didn't feel any self-worth or meaning just "making one revision after another to please clients", so she chose to quit for the fourth time in four years. "Maybe I was just not born for office work. I had to find another way of life," she said.

Zhang now makes a living as a blogger. She writes stories about naked resigners on Xiaohongshu, a popular lifestyle social media platform. She also conducts interviews and podcasts for the platform and hosts offline activities for such people.

Her Xiaohongshu account, Luoci Xiaozhang — "naked-resigned little Zhang" — has garnered nearly 50,000 likes. It's still a young account, but advertisements and product sales can bring her an income similar to her previous salary.

What delights her most is recognition from followers. To pass the energy she gets from working for herself to her followers, she does interviews and hosts special chats for resigners where they can share their stories of making a living and gaining self-satisfaction.

"When I write something, people don't hesitate to say that they like what I share, which encourages me. I feel I'm gaining the meaning of life, unlike before," she said.

Sometimes, she gets a little anxious because a digital nomad's income can be unstable. She has been staying at Digital Nomads Anji for a month. She said she has met many fun people, and they all inspire her in different ways.

"For example, I met this special girl who also makes a living by writing stories she contributes to magazines and other outlets. When I asked her if she feels anxious when there are no assignments, she just said 'people take vacations'," Zhang said. The digital nomads, many of whom refuse to have a steady job but work part-time online, have their own definition of life and success.

"There is no longer anybody to revise my stories or decide whether they can be used," Zhang said.