100 Reasons Cities Drive Young People Away: Which One Are You?

Foodthink’s Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme was originally conceived to foster a mutual learning and collaborative relationship between young people keen to return home and pursue ecological farming, and seasoned growers who have already amassed rich hands-on experience. The aim was to help the next generation of farmers reduce the trial-and-error costs of entering agriculture.

Yet, contrary to expectations, the vast majority of the nearly 100 applications we received came from people with little to no prior agricultural background. Many had already set themselves on the urban elite track—some had studied at prestigious overseas universities and earned master’s degrees, others had spent years at leading tech companies, and a few had even launched their own ventures. Naturally, the pool also included everyday city workers and students grappling with the pressures of university admissions.

●The farm mentors for this round of our ecological agriculture internship programme have also shared photographs of themselves from ten or even thirty years ago. In their early twenties, they were brimming with ambition, studying and working in urban centres. Yet, however divergent their journeys, they have all arrived at the same destination: becoming small-scale ecological farmers. Will regular readers of Foodthink be able to recognise them?

●Yan Ping from Guigang in Guangxi is one of this year’s farm mentors. She moved to Guangdong in the 1990s after finishing high school, where she worked for more than twenty years. She returned to her hometown in 2017 to practice ecological farming. In July 2022, while Foodthink was conducting climate change research in Guangxi, we spent a night staying in the small bamboo hut on her farm.

●Guo Rui of Yinlin Farm in Guangzhou graduated from South China Agricultural University, where he was among the first cohort of students to move into the new dormitories. Guorong, an applicant for this internship programme, recognised the building at a glance. Nearly twenty years on, he too found himself living in the very same dormitory once occupied by his senior. He also serves as a farm mentor for both of these internship cohorts.

Why do they want to leave the city, break away from traditional career and academic tracks, head out to the countryside, and learn to work as farmers?

When asked why they left their previous roles, this is what they said.

Zhaoyan

Female, 34, Bachelor’s degree in Automation, recently left her role

She had been working in IT testing, where the pace was relentless. Frequently, she was required to pull all-nighters to meet project deadlines, which took a severe toll on her health. The pressure became so overwhelming that she found herself unable to sleep through the night. Realising she couldn’t cope any longer, she made the decision to resign. It’s been over a year since she left Beijing to return to her hometown.

Lisa

Female, 28, BA in Finance and MA in Taxation. Worked in finance and auditing for two years after graduating, recently left her position

Working at an accounting firm involved producing audit reports for clients and guiding them through the IPO process. With constant business trips, it was essentially a relentless 9-to-9, six-day-a-week grind. I had no personal time left to look after my well-being or health; my back and eyes began to play up, the pressure was immense, and I felt deeply torn. I wanted to make the most of my youth and try a different way of living.

国境

Female, 26. After graduating with a BA in sociology from a European university, I secured a place on a master’s programme in sociology/anthropology at a top US university. I am currently taking a gap year.

I soon realised that academic research and scholarship simply weren’t for me. During the first semester of my postgraduate studies at a highly competitive university, I was instructed that the starting point for any writing or thinking was to engage with the three foremost experts in the field, swiftly identify gaps and fresh perspectives, adhere to rigid formatting rules, and adopt specialist jargon.

This superficial, ungrounded mode of writing and thinking choked my breath and stifled my desire. In my attempts to break free from authority, I only found myself back under its rigid judgment of thought. My mind and body rebelled relentlessly, so I had no choice but to stop.

溜达卓

Female, 27. Holds a college diploma in Western culinary arts. Previously worked in the pastry departments of five-star hotels and international cruise ships. Founded her own venture in 2019, dedicating herself to nature and environmental education grounded in her local community.

Despite encountering the pandemic shortly after launching the business, I’ve been fortunate to work on something I genuinely enjoy. It offers considerable freedom and creative space, and I can comfortably make ends meet. Yet I still often feel a sense of powerlessness, as though I lack the strength to push the company into a new phase. There are simply many areas where I still need to learn and grow.

At the same time, I feel I haven’t yet discovered my life’s calling. Lacking full certainty, I want to keep trying new things, hoping to stumble upon fresh discoveries.

A Yue

Male, 25. After graduating with a vocational diploma in marketing, he worked in insurance sales and as a pharmaceutical representative. He has since left the industry.

A mismatched work environment and frequent business travel. Handling sales and after-sales service for hospitals in my hometown amounts to little more than gift-giving, drinking, and cultivating personal connections. Since 2022, the company has started expanding into county-level hospitals, where favouritism and entrenched networks are even more pronounced, demanding even more travel. I want to learn and apply ecological agriculture techniques, and if possible, return to my hometown to live and launch a business.

Yan Cha

Female, 26. After graduating with a UK bachelor’s degree in Environment and Sustainability, she returned to China and worked at two non-profit organisations specialising in environmental and agricultural projects. She is about to leave her current role.

When it comes to work, I assess it across three key dimensions: basic needs (salary, benefits, and leave), developmental needs (opportunities to broaden my horizons, enhance my skills, and accumulate knowledge), and value fulfilment (the value I can generate for this role, and for the position or organisation itself).

I hope these three aspects can remain broadly balanced in my work. However, based on my observations over the past few months, my current role (the one I am about to leave) fails to strike that balance.

June

Female, 32. Holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history. She has worked in human resources since graduation, and her department is now set to be dissolved.

I believe work is meant to support a better life. I hope to spend more of my finite time on pursuits I genuinely enjoy and that benefit others, and I have drawn considerable professional fulfilment from my years in HR.

However, due to past circumstances such as corporate restructuring, I have been gradually marginalised over the last two years, with my abilities and achievements going largely unrecognised by the company. With my department set to be dissolved at the end of 2023, I see this as a clear turning point. I had already been planning along the lines of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early), and I intend to treat this round of corporate “optimisation” as the opportunity to step into a new phase of life.

Mubai

Female, 26. Holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in chemistry from the UK. Has left her role.

In the few jobs I had after graduating, I was largely exploring the various roles available within the environmental sector. I worked at an environmental NGO and also served as a chemistry teacher at an innovative school, helping students grasp the concepts and practices of sustainable development.

Compared with teaching, I found I was better suited to rolling up my sleeves, experimenting, and figuring out solutions for myself. So, I joined a startup running a global platform for bulk waste recycling. While the company’s aim was to find the best matches for waste streams, it didn’t tackle the fundamental issues behind mass waste generation and consumerism. I soon realised this role wouldn’t help me achieve my vision. I wasn’t satisfied with just optimising international trade; I wanted to pursue a more comprehensive approach that addressed problems at the source.

Looking back, all my previous roles were in the environmental sector, yet they only addressed problems at the end of the chain. It wasn’t until I revisited the permaculture principles that had been quietly taking root in me years earlier that I found my direction. I want to build a self-sustaining, closed-loop system that tackles waste, refuse, and wastewater at the source—eliminating the very idea of ‘waste’ altogether, since every material can be cycled back into nature.

On a personal level, after spending more than ten years glued to a computer, studying and working at a frantic pace, I’ve come to believe life shouldn’t be lived this way. After taking courses in natural building and permaculture design back home, I became even more certain that I feel most at ease in nature—even if that means rolling up my sleeves and working the land. The pandemic heightened my awareness of crisis, whether in society, the natural world, or my own life. It made me realise that we need to build resilience and learn how to produce our own healthy, safe food.

Xinyi

31-year-old woman. Bachelor’s degree in German. Previously worked as a chef in high-end restaurants in Beijing and Canada before returning to her hometown to take a break.

The restaurant’s management and day-to-day operations were plagued by long-standing issues, such as ineffective waste segregation, food going to waste, and chronic staff shortages. Against this backdrop of relentless pressure, I began to ask myself:

Why did fresh produce from small farms turn into a burden that the kitchen simply couldn’t keep up with?

Why were my talented colleagues unable to utilise their strengths in this role?

Why did the immense passion I once held for food and cooking seem to fade, day by day?

Working in the restaurant, we felt like nothing more than machines constantly on the brink of breaking down from mental or physical exhaustion, yet forced to keep grinding. I had anticipated these challenges and mentally prepared myself, but even after doing my best to adapt and make whatever changes I could, my doubts only grew. Eventually, my body sent its own clear message: perhaps it was time to take a step back.

So I handed in my notice, headed back home to reunite with family, and set out to tackle a few things I’ve long wanted to try while I’m still young—such as volunteering on environmental and children’s projects, and undertaking an internship at an eco-farm.

Beyond these reflective personal stories, this year’s applicants also faced challenges familiar to many young professionals, such as:

struggling physically and mentally to cope with high-intensity, monotonous work that pays poorly;

a desire to change their living environment;

knowing their true ambitions lie elsewhere;

having a vague goal and currently navigating by process of elimination;

clashing with managers over differing work philosophies;

wanting to gain practical knowledge in a different role;

struggling to maintain a healthy work–life balance;

finding commercial logic unappealing, particularly in fast-moving consumer goods brands, and leaving to pursue further studies as there was little left to learn;

pushing through a few draining days and feeling rather unwell. Through this, I realised that while I was fairly content with my life, it no longer offered what I needed. It felt like the right moment to begin exploring new paths.

limited room for personal growth, alongside a growing clarity about what I did not want to do.

My previous role was in a field I loved and excelled at, and I had been working remotely. However, when on-site attendance was introduced—adding a 1.5-hour commute each way—it felt like too much wasted time, so I left without hesitation.

Finally, I’d like to share the story of a fellow who truly embodies a ‘Zen’ mindset.

Xiuxiu

Female, 30, Master’s in Clinical Medicine. Spent a year volunteering at a temple.

I initially left the temple with plans to pursue a doctoral degree in a different field, specifically to complete a joint research project in religious studies. However, the application for the project was unsuccessful. Frankly, a conventional PhD path was never what I wanted. Moreover, academic religious studies differs greatly from the practice of religion itself, which left me lacking motivation. Consequently, I decided in the summer of 2022 to abandon my plans to sit for further doctoral entrance exams.

Over the past two years, cooking for myself and regularly visiting markets have given me a stark awareness of food safety issues. I came to realise that rather than engaging in work of little consequence just to earn a wage—and thereby placing my food security and personal well-being in the hands of strangers—it is far better to take matters into my own hands and create what I need.

This week, applicants who passed the preliminary interviews for the internship scheme will be matched with the host farms through a mutual selection process. Once paired, fifteen of these participants will depart for the farms at staggered intervals to begin their farming apprenticeships. Foodthink will continue to chronicle their experiences.

If you find yourself resonating with the journeys of these young people, we welcome you to leave a comment and share your reflections.

Incidentally, what prompted them to decide to spend three months—or even a full year—working as farmers on small-scale ecological farms? The answer will be revealed in our next instalment.

Ecological Farm Internship Scheme Series ▼

Project Coordination: Ma Xiaochao

Editor: Tianle

Exit series photography: Zhang Xiaoshu

Published by Foodthink