Young people enroll in night school to broaden their horizons

At 7 p.m. sharp on the evening of March 20, a group of 40 young people gathered at a bookstore in downtown Chongqing to learn how to enter the world of live streaming and e-commerce.

The sight has become familiar recently as young people flock to the shops to diversify their skills and gain an edge in China’s competitive job market.

One of the beneficiaries of the nightly e-commerce course is Luo Peng, who, after gaining new skills, started a side job selling products via his own live broadcasts.

“I used to hang out with friends, eating and drinking in the evenings. But taking evening classes is a more productive use of my time,” Luo said.

Evening e-commerce classes are free and run by Jiulongpo Youth Night School and sponsored by the local government.

Jiulongpo Youth Night School is one of many night schools that have sprung up in recent times. Night school-related topics have consistently been among the most popular on social media over the past 12 months.

The threads include comments from many users who complain that they are tired of certain mundane activities, such as shopping, watching TV or browsing on their mobile phone, and want to improve themselves.

Unlike the night schools of yore, which focused solely on traditional crafts and arts, many of the newest classes have a more modern twist and include short film production, live streaming, and artificial intelligence, to name a few.

Early signs that night school is becoming common among young people came in Shanghai last fall, when more than 650,000 people tried to sign up for 10,000 available night school spots. So many people tried to sign up at the same time that the enrollment platform crashed at one point.

Jiulongpo Night School opened in March and hosts activities every Wednesday evening, ranging from live streaming, healthy living, mobile phone photography to creating flower displays.

The students, aged 18 to over 40, come from a variety of backgrounds and include students, government officials, teachers, doctors, bankers, journalists, factory workers, housewives and the self-employed.

As non-profit programs run by public institutions, many evening schools invite the best teachers and specialists from various fields to conduct high-quality lessons.

“Attending night school has rekindled my long-lost motivation to study. Not only can I break the bad habit of sitting at home and checking my phone after work, but I can also learn new skills and meet more like-minded friends,” said Fu Xiaofeng, a 32-year-old administrator at a local hospital.

Fu said the courses she signed up for – Chinese calligraphy and boxing – cost 50 yuan (£5.44) each and were affordable and worth the effort.

Fu said young Chinese people face many problems in a rapidly developing society, and one of them is the inability to communicate with others.

“The popularity of night schools means that students are still looking for a better life, even though they have less free time,” she added.