This is Ray Hou. She’s a — — at Repair Sisters. Repair Sisters is an all-female home repair company in the city of Chengdu, the first of its kind in China. In China, if you needed something fixed, most likely a man would show up at your door. Ray and her colleagues are changing that. And they’re not just doing repairs. They’re building a brand. Going viral. And discovering that China’s growing population of single women need their service. Ray once managed a shopping mall in Xi’an, but as the economy slowed, her hard work stopped paying off. She was craving something real, work where she could actually see what she’d accomplished at the end of the day. So, at 40, Ray made a bold pivot. And studied for two months to become an electrician. Without any experience, Ray needed to find a skilled worker willing to take her on as an apprentice. So she packed her bags, got a one way ticket — “OK, let’s go to Chengdu.” And moved hundreds of miles to apprentice with Repair Sisters. There, Ray found a community of women willing to share their skills. One of Ray’s first solo jobs was to mount a cat furniture set on the wall. Ray’s clients, most of whom are women, tell her that they prefer female technicians because they’re easier to talk to. And, for single women in particular, a handywoman feels like a safer option. By 2030, around 35 million Chinese women in their 20s and 30s are expected to be living alone. This population is growing as more women are delaying marriage to pursue education and careers. More than half of the Repair Sisters had office jobs before joining. It’s not just about following their passion either. While traditional office salaries stagnated, blue-collar wages have been climbing at a faster pace. The Repair Sisters have managed to build a social media brand by telling their startup story. Their more than 600,000 followers means steady work, as well as partnerships with brands that want more female consumers. But their success and social media fame have also brought pushback. Income from Ray’s new career covers her expenses, but is still less than her manager salary.

This is Tom Jia. He’s a 28-year-old lifestyle influencer who calls himself a — Tangping, or “lying flat:” It’s a fast-growing lifestyle, rejecting social pressures to overwork and pursue material success. In China, young people face intense pressure to work grueling hours, buy a house and get married. Some are quietly rebelling and choosing to do the bare minimum, living a low-income, low-desire life away from the big cities. Tom’s role: making videos to teach them how and where to live an affordable, stress-free life. Before, Tom became a “lying flat” influencer with 400,000 followers, he was one of many young people feeling burned out by the big city grind. Tom was living in Shenzhen, one of the most expensive cities in China. In 2023, Tom quit his job, bought an R.V. and set out to scout China’s best cities for “lying flat.” He has turned this firsthand research into a video series and a spreadsheet that now includes over 100 cities. In this video, he’s introducing the fourth edition of this “lying flat” city guide. Each place Tom visits, he talks to residents, tours apartments and films the different neighborhoods. After that, he rates each city using a dozen different criteria, like public transit, affordability and how much nature you have access to. After China’s housing market went bust in 2021, the country entered into a prolonged economic downturn. That’s a big part of why “lying flat” became more popular. The collapse of the housing market left smaller cities like this one with a glut of empty apartments, making housing relatively cheap. Today, Tom is exploring this town, Haikou, at the request of his followers. Between streaming revenue and viewer donations, Tom’s “lying flat” influencer work now pays for about half of his monthly expenses. Tom’s new apartment, in the city of Kunming, includes a view of the mountains and costs a fifth of what he used to pay in Shenzhen.