Long holiday plagues single white collar workers

NANNING - The ongoing "Golden Week" holiday has brought expectation to busy-working white collar workers in China's big cities but at the same time annoyance to those who are single.

Chen Ni, a 26-year-old white collar worker with a foreign company in Shanghai, has been feeling increasingly anxious as the holiday proceeded.

This year's break lasts for eight days from September 30 to October 7, encompassing the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day, which falls on October 1, and usually lasts for a seven-day period.

Though Chen mailed a package of mooncakes to her parents who live in a remote county in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, she still felt haunted by a sense of loss.

"I'm not happy at all even though I have a decent job in a big company. Sometimes, I'd rather go back to work in my hometown where I may earn less money but can often see my family," said Chen.

Fast-paced city life brings great pressure to white collar workers.

Chen confessed that she works hard to forget her loneliness because she feels terrible in her spare time.

However, a promising job and the opportunities that a metropolis have to offer leaves Chen and many other young white collars in a state of ambivalence.

These workers seeking out prospects in big cities are usually busy and have little time to spend with their families. It is a dilemma for many.

"Last time when I went home, I found that I had little to share with my family. My brother had his own life after getting married. My parents wanted me to come back to accompany them but did not understand why I insisted on staying in Shanghai," Chen complained, adding that she was exhausted.

"I feel rather embarrassed and suffer during holidays," Chen sobbed.

Life is not perfect. People should try to maintain balance in their daily lives as annoyance and troubles are inevitable, said Zhou Keda, vice president of the Academy of Social Sciences of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The term -- "empty nesters" often refers to elderly people who do not have relatives living nearby to take care of them.

Many young white collar workers could also be identified as a new group of "empty nesters" since they live in big cities far away from their families and hometown while suffering from loneliness and homesickness, said Wang Xiangnan, a researcher from the Beijing-based Sentian Psychological Institute.

However, these young "empty nesters" mostly choose the living style voluntarily while the elderly have to accept the undesirable empty-nest situations passively, Wang added.

They could alleviate their own and the parents' loneliness if they were to go home during holidays or call their family regularly to keep in touch with them, Wang said.

Marriage may be another remedy for loneliness.

With the week-long holiday coming, Zhang Jing felt embarrassed as a 30-year-old single woman who has passed the best age for marriage from the traditional perspective of Chinese people.

Giving up the choice of going home, Zhang made travel plans for the holidays but is still in a blue mood.

"I want to show my family that I can live a good life without their company," Zhang said, "I know that travel can not make me happy but it can help me kill time."

He added "From the bottom of my heart, I hope to spend the holiday with my parents. If I got married, I would go back with my husband. But now I feel embarrassed and have a kind of pressure when I am staying with them."

Zhang's troubles are common for many single white collar workers.

Under huge pressure to marry, some single people have resorted to hiring a boyfriend or a girlfriend to go back with them to their hometown to please their parents during holidays, according to reports.

It is vital for single white collar workers to develop a positive attitude especially in the fast-paced and stressful living conditions we have nowadays, Wang said.