Warner Bros. Discovery’s rapid split shows how much the cable TV business is struggling
Lukas I. Alpert writes about the media and entertainment industries for MarketWatch. He previously worked for the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, New York Post and the Associated Press. In 2019, he was part of a WSJ team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. You can follow him on Twitter@lalpert1.
It’s smart to ‘test-drive’ retirement before you stop working. Here’s how to do it.
Jessica Hall is a retirement reporter for MarketWatch. She was an Age Boom Academy Fellow with Columbia University and completed the Leadership Exchange on Ageism. She previously worked at Mainebiz, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where she and her team earned a Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism for a series on aging. She spent 17 years at Reuters, covering mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications and airlines. She started her career in Baltimore at The Daily Record and Baltimore Business Journal. She has freelanced for Barron’s and other publications.
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Venessa Wong is a personal finance reporter for MarketWatch based in New York City. She previously covered business, inequality and culture during her tenure at BuzzFeed News, and reported on the food industry for Bloomberg. Venessa is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and Middlebury College. Follow her on Twitter @venessawong.
What is a ‘996’ work culture, and why are young professionals in China giving it the cold shoulder?
In China’s hypercompetitive job market, a growing number of young professionals are opting out of the relentless “996” work culture — working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — that once epitomized ambition and success. Instead, they are embracing a lifestyle that prioritizes personal well-being over corporate expectations, signaling a significant shift in the country’s work ethos.
This movement, known by the phrases tang ping (lying flat) and bai lan (let it rot), reflects a collective disillusionment among China’s youth. These terms encapsulate a passive resistance to societal pressures and an acknowledgment of the diminishing returns of overexertion in a saturated job market. The phenomenon gained traction as many young people found themselves overworked, underpaid and facing limited upward mobility.
‘Burning out for someone else’s vision’
“I used to think working late meant I was valuable,” said Liu Wen, 25, who left her job at a fintech startup in Hangzhou last year. “But after two years of nonstop pressure and no promotion, I realized I was just burning out for someone else’s vision.”
The shift is not merely cultural — it’s tied to real economic pressures. Soaring housing costs, intense academic competition and stagnant wage growth have left many young Chinese skeptical of the traditional promise that hard work will yield social advancement.
A more recent manifestation of this disengagement is the emergence of the “rat people” subculture. These individuals, often unemployed or underemployed, choose to live modestly, spending their days in small apartments, engaging in minimal economic activity. This lifestyle is not born out of laziness but rather a conscious decision to reject the traditional markers of success.
These trends underscore a quiet rebellion: one not marked by protest but by retreat from participation in a system that many young Chinese see as rigged against them.
“My parents worked hard their whole lives to give me a better future,” said Zhao Ming, a 23-year-old recent graduate in Chengdu. “But now they worry because I’m not chasing the same kind of success. I just want to live a life that feels balanced — not one that breaks me.”
China’s youth unemployment rate has been a contributing factor to this cultural shift. As of April 2025, the urban youth unemployment rate for individuals aged 16 to 24 stood at 15.8%, a slight decrease from previous months but still indicative of a difficult job market. The scarcity of desirable employment opportunities has led many young people to reassess their career aspirations and life goals.
This economic backdrop is not only pushing young people out of the labor market but reshaping their relationships with work itself.
Quitting time for ‘996’?
In response to these changing attitudes, some Chinese companies are re-evaluating their workplace cultures. There is a growing recognition that the “996” model is unsustainable and even counterproductive.
The priorities of this youthful demographic cohort, known as Generation Z in the U.S., “primarily revolve around physical and mental health, followed closely by wealth accumulation,” said Zhang Xiaomeng, a professor at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, whose research surveyed 17,000 respondents. “They face obstacles in the workplace, including anxiety; low mental resilience; and dissatisfaction with pay, career prospects and work-life balance.”
Companies are beginning to implement more flexible work arrangements, prioritize employee well-being and offer clearer paths for career advancement to attract and retain talent. Human-resources teams across the country are also adjusting recruitment strategies to signal a more humane and adaptive office culture.
Startups and midsized firms have led the way, offering remote-work options, “wellness days” and clearer progression frameworks. Even some state-owned enterprises have relaxed dress codes and re-evaluated internal metrics to better align with evolving workforce expectations.
This shift among China’s young adults has broader implications for the country’s economy and society. It challenges long-held beliefs about work ethic and success, prompting a national conversation about the value of labor, the definition of achievement and the importance of mental health.
There’s also a growing policy interest in addressing youth disaffection, with local governments experimenting with job training programs, entrepreneurship subsidies and even mental-health awareness campaigns. Whether these will meaningfully change the structural pressures remains to be seen.
But what’s clear is that a generation that grew up amid rapid growth and urban transformation is now asking tougher questions about what a “good life” actually looks like — and whether constant sacrifice is worth the promise of advancement.
These young adults are signaling a desire for a more balanced and fulfilling life, moving away from the exhaustive demands of traditional work culture. This quiet rebellion is prompting employers and policymakers to reconsider and reformulate approaches to work, success and well-being in the modern era.
For a nation long defined by its high-octane growth and relentless drive, the rise of a slower, more skeptical generation could mark one of the most consequential cultural shifts in decades.
Tanner Brown covers China for MarketWatch and Barron’s.
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My husband used my money to renovate his house. Will I now get half of his property in a divorce?
In case of potential divorce (possibly within the next couple of years), would I have any claim to a house my spouse bought prior to our marriage? We are actively in the process of selling it, and funds from our joint money-market savings account have been used toward renovation in preparation to sell.
There were many expenses, such as replacing all the carpeting, adding new siding, fixing the foundation, etc. My name is not on the deed to that rental home, but we have been married 15 years, and to reiterate, joint funds were used to prepare it for the market. We live in Texas. I wondered if I would be able to gain a portion of the profit when the home sells.
The Wife
Dear Wife,
There are three parts to your question: Do you have an ownership stake in the house? Will you get access to those funds now? And what will happen if you divorce?
Yes, you will have an ownership stake in the house if you divorce. If you and your husband used joint funds to make significant renovations to the house, you will have commingled it from being separate property to commingled property. Whether you get access to those funds after the sale depends on where your husband decides to deposit the proceeds; he could put that money into a bank account without your name on it. If you divorced, a judge would decide the extent of your ownership in the house and would take that into account when splitting your assets.
“In Texas, the court uses a tracing method to determine how much commingled property is separate and how much is marital property,” according to the law offices of Kary L. Key in Weatherford, Texas. “This can be a complex process that requires careful analysis of bank statements, financial records, and other documents. The court will typically look at how the assets were obtained and when they were acquired.” If your husband used the proceeds from this sale to buy another home, that means he would be using marital funds to buy another house during your marriage.
Commingled property in Texas is not automatically divided 50/50 in a divorce.
Texas is a community-property state, which means that property acquired during the marriage is marital property. That brings us to the nuts and bolts of commingled property in Texas. It’s not automatically divided 50/50 in a divorce, the law firm says. “Instead, the court will use a ‘just and right’ approach to divide the property. ‘Just and right’ essentially means a fair and equitable manner. This means that the court will look at how long the couple was married, what each spouse contributed to the marriage, and the earning potential of the spouses.”
You will need to show the receipts: bank statements, receipts for work done, wire transfers to contractors, etc. Texas is one of nine community property states in the U.S., with the others being Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin. Community-property laws vary in each of these states, but they also cut both ways. For example, in those states, the debts one spouse accrues during a marriage are also typically divided in a divorce.
Talk to your husband and tell him that you want to receive some funds from the sale of the house. He may be receptive, or he may simply want to refund you the amount you contributed. “Using an inheritance to pay for home renovations can transform it into commingled property,” says the law office of Bryan Fagan, which has offices across Texas. “Similarly, depositing separate funds into a joint account for shared expenses can undermine their separate status [or using] community income to improve or pay off separate property, such as a house owned before marriage.”
If you divorce, you would have a strong hand.
Related: ‘It’s been a scary ride’: My family has $800K in stocks. We lost 2 years of market gains in a few weeks. Do we sell — or buy?
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