The Chinese millennials shunning Lunar New Year travel

"For some people, the idea of setting aside 3,000 yuan (£330; $432) to go home to see family, after you take into account train tickets, clothing and gifts, can be an economic burden," says Zak Dychtwald, founder of Young China Group, a market insights and management consulting firm. "And you want to return home triumphantly, rather than with your tail between your legs."

'I want to give my parents face'

Not every young millennial is avoiding the trip home – yet they aren't all travelling with open arms. 

Yu Meiling, a 29-year-old freelance product manager in the eastern city of Hangzhou, will return to her ancestral village with her husband. She is doing the usual, time-consuming preparations: stuffing red envelopes with 1,000 yuan (£110; $140) each for her mum, dad and younger sister. The couple will also buy wine and cigarettes as gifts to other relatives, as per tradition.

Yet expectations – and financial burdens – are weighing on her this year. She feels intensified pressure to uphold mianzi, a Chinese concept of saving face for social prestige and standing. In Yu's world, that could be exhibited through the gifts one brings or even the attire one chooses to wear. To elevate mianzi, the couple will drive home this year in a new car they recently purchased.

"In the past, gifts we bought were pretty much the same during the Lunar New Year. Things were simpler because everyone's living standard was more or less the same. Now with a wider wealth gap, we constantly compare ourselves to others when we go home for the festival," she says. "I don't particularly like the Spring Festival. But I'm going home this year with my husband because I want to give my parents face." 

Whether young people like Yu Meiling are finding their way back home, or seeking the open road like Cassidy Yu, the Lunar New Year is looking increasingly different.