Halfway across the world, Jessica is confronting the same expectations from within China. After studying in Shanghai and Europe and working at an international organization in New York, where a mentor once urged her to stop working late and “enjoy the New York night,” Jessica returned to China to finish her master’s thesis and enter the domestic job market.
onsdag 30. september 2026
China’s Young Women Are Rewriting the Rules of Adulthood
In the U.S. state of Hawai‘i, Iris lives far from the pressures of urban China. Growing up in Zhejiang, she spent much of her childhood on what her mother called “self-improvement”: Olympiad math, piano lessons, and daily swimming. After graduating from New York University (NYU), Iris chose a simple, quiet life in Hawai‘i, using geographic distance to protect her personal autonomy from the pressure facing Chinese women in their 20s to settle down, marry, and have children.
Halfway across the world, Jessica is confronting the same expectations from within China. After studying in Shanghai and Europe and working at an international organization in New York, where a mentor once urged her to stop working late and “enjoy the New York night,” Jessica returned to China to finish her master’s thesis and enter the domestic job market.
Halfway across the world, Jessica is confronting the same expectations from within China. After studying in Shanghai and Europe and working at an international organization in New York, where a mentor once urged her to stop working late and “enjoy the New York night,” Jessica returned to China to finish her master’s thesis and enter the domestic job market.