After-work silence spreads among working Chinese

NANJING - Yang Jing works in a government department in East China's Jiangsu province and, lately, she has not been willing to speak even a word to her family after work.

"I have been busy over the last two months, and I feel so exhausted that I only want to surf the net, not talk to my husband," Yang said about her after-work habits.

Yang is not the only person keeping silent after work. The habit is spreading from those with occupations that require large degrees of concentration, such as programming, engineering, design and medical professions, to others in a wider range of jobs.

According to a survey carried out by myhenan.qq.com, a major online community in Central China's Henan province, more than 90 percent of 2,751 respondents tend to keep silent after work.

According to a survey by China Youth Daily, 83.1 percent of the 2,750 respondents said that they keep silent after work to different degrees, with 34.7 percent reporting feeling melancholy.

The report also shows that 50.1 percent of those surveyed were born after the 1980s, and those born after the 1970s take 30.9 percent.

"I have the symptom of keeping silent after work, what can I do?" "Xiaomofangdeshijie" wrote on Sina Weibo, China's most popular Twitter-like service.

Netizen "maryxu990" wrote, "I would rather not dine at home because I do not want to talk to my family."

Meanwhile, there is growing concern and worry that some people's habit of keeping silent may lead families to break up.

According to local civil affairs departments in Henan, a couple divorced in the last week, citing "dead silence" in the family, and such examples are not few.

According to the online survey by myhenan.qq.com, 63.4 percent of respondents worry that the tendency toward silence will make people lose passion in life; 59.6 percent people think it will cause severe mental illness; and 58.5 percent people agree that it will hurt the feelings of their loved ones.

"Mojidexinshi" wrote on his microblog that dead silence, not quarreling, is the worst thing that can break up families.

Communication between couples is very important, said Li Wanfei, who, like her husband, works in the IT field.

"Although we enjoy ourselves separately at home after we get off work, we do communicate with each other," said Li.

Fei Junfeng, a professor with Nanking University, said that long periods of after-work silence at home will result in coldness and hostility among family members, which will affect the feelings of family members.

"Once keeping silent after work becomes a habit, people may habitually refuse to communicate, hugely damaging the family," Fei said.

Le Jia, a lecturer as well as the founder of Four-colors Personality Analysis, suggested that people should actively communicate with their family members when they are aware of their gloomy moods.

Meanwhile, people should adjust to their working conditions, take part in more after-work activities and make more friends outside of work.

Le also suggested that people should be treated in accordance with their personality types. For example, those with red personalities cannot bear quiet, even preferring the noise of an argument to dead silence, while those with blue personalities prefer quiet company.