Chinese PhD quits psychiatrist career to deliver food, sing at bars

A 31-year-old Chinese PhD quit her psychiatrist career to deliver food and sing at bars, saying she wanted greater freedom and control over her time.

Former Chinese psychiatrist Liu Zihan

Seven months ago, Liu Zihan was working as a psychiatrist and postdoctoral researcher at a top-tier hospital in Zhuhai, southern China's Guangdong Province.

Now, some evenings find her wearing a delivery uniform and riding an electric scooter through the city's streets with customers' meals. On others, she sings at bars.

Liu resigned from the hospital and left her postdoctoral position in February after wrestling with the decision for one or two years. She said she did not leave because she disliked medicine. Instead, the highly structured nature of hospital work increasingly conflicted with the life she wanted.

"What I want most is to be able to freely control all 24 hours of my day," she said in a recent interview with Chinese news outlet Ziniu News.

Liu grew up in Shijiazhuang in northern China's Hebei Province and studied clinical medicine at Sichuan University's West China School of Medicine. After five years there, she continued her studies at the University of Macau's Faculty of Health Sciences, earning her PhD in November 2022.

Shortly before graduating, she joined the hospital in Zhuhai, where she underwent standardized psychiatry residency training while conducting postdoctoral research. She spent about three and a half years in residency training, remaining enthusiastic about clinical work during her first two years. She ranked first across all specialties in her residency completion examination, according to Yangcheng Evening News.

But having virtually every part of her day dictated by a schedule increasingly troubled her. She recalled having to stop what she wanted to do at night because she knew she had to get up at 7:30 a.m. and begin hospital rounds at 8 a.m. the following morning.

After considering leaving for one or two years, she resigned from the hospital and left her postdoctoral position in February. A doctorate could bring good income and professional recognition, she said, but those things did not necessarily mean she had found a life that suited her.

After leaving the hospital, she traveled and tried a series of jobs. She sold breakfast at a street stall, performed at bars and eventually bought an electric scooter to deliver food around Zhuhai. None of those jobs, she said, is intended to become her next permanent career.

She said she saved money while working at the hospital and now earns from deliveries, singing and occasional online consultations. She usually makes only a few deliveries in the evening and sometimes stops after earning just over 10 yuan (US$1.50), enough to cover a meal. Singing at a bar can bring her 100-200 yuan a night.

Rather than setting a monthly income target or planning each day in advance, she chooses what to do based on her interests and energy. "I really enjoy riding an electric scooter on the road, picking up food and then delivering it to someone's home," she said. "It gives me a strong sense of purpose and immediate satisfaction."

Her decision initially shocked her parents, but they gradually became more accepting after seeing that she remained busy and could manage her life, she said. Her career change has also prompted questions online over whether spending years earning a medical doctorate only to deliver food amounts to wasting her education.

Liu disagrees. She said much of her earlier life had focused on academic achievement and meeting conventional expectations of success, but she does not consider those years wasted. "I do not think any of my past experiences were wrong," she said. "Every experience was a process of self-exploration."

She has befriended local restaurant and coffee shop owners, delivery riders, street-food vendors and boatmen. She said their resilience and optimism exposed her to ways of living she had rarely encountered during her years in school and medicine.

"Everyone is doing ordinary work, earning money with their own hands and living each day in a very grounded way."

Liu has no detailed five-year plan. She hopes to stage her own concert, make a film about her experiences and obtain a seafarer's certificate.

"This is not experiencing life," she said. "This is my life."