A young man from China has sparked controversy by abandoning an elite lifestyle to live as a homeless individual, surviving on just 100 yuan (US$14) a month.
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Zhao Dian, 32, spent his formative years in Shanghai before relocating to New Zealand at the age of 10. He became an academic powerhouse, earning two bachelor’s degrees and three master’s degrees in finance while living in Sydney, New York, Beijing, and Paris. Despite relentless pressure from his parents to succeed, Zhao was drawn to the pursuit of knowledge.
Reflecting on his troubled upbringing, Zhao recounts a distant relationship with his parents, marked by his father’s abusive discipline for being left-handed and his mother’s inability to empathise with his struggles. For him, his prestigious education felt like a “shackle”.
After years abroad, he battled profound loneliness, often finding solace only among fellow Chinese expatriates. While in Paris, he took up a job in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant, where he discovered joy in performing simple tasks.
“Washing dishes could bring happiness, so why wait for an ideal job?” he expressed with conviction.
In 2023, Zhao returned to China, initially taking jobs as a waiter at a local beer festival and in a hotel. Last year, he found his way to Dali, Yunnan, where he made the radical decision to live on the streets.
His daily routine consists of awakening at 7am and settling down for the night by 9pm, with occasional showers at hostels. He sustains himself by eating at free vegetarian restaurants and relies on hotel facilities for laundry, managing to live modestly on 100 yuan a month, with personal savings totalling around 2,500 yuan.
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