Why do young people fall in love with night school?

Recently, "night school" has become a new way of life for many young people.

Baidu Index shows that in the past three months, the average daily search index for "night school" has been higher than 300, a year-on-year increase of 22%, and once reached a peak of 841.

On the day registration opened for this year's Shanghai Citizen Night School autumn class, 650,000 people competed online for 9,117 course places.

On social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, there are many people who lament that night schools are more difficult to compete for than concerts. Others share their real night school experiences, and some even organize groups to open private night schools.

So, what is it about night school that is so exciting?

The first person to start the "night school craze" was the Shanghai Citizen Art Night School opened by the Shanghai Mass Art Museum.

The courses offered by this evening school this fall include incense experience, guzheng, classical dance, Baduanjin, handmade leather goods, baking, and girl group jazz dance... There are quite a variety of courses.

On the day of registration, all 27 courses offered by the Citizen Night School were sold out within three minutes.

The most popular one is the zero-based handmade leather goods experience class, which only takes 16 seconds from the opening of the entrance to the end of registration.

No wonder some netizens complained: Night school spots are harder to get than concert tickets.

The price of almost all courses at Shanghai Citizen Night School is 500 yuan for 12 classes. Under the popular Weibo topic "Why are young people rushing to attend night school?", some netizens lamented, "500 yuan? I'll go too! It's too cheap." Among the more than 600 comments under this topic, "cheap" The word was mentioned most frequently, with a total of 28 times.

If you want to take these classes in the market, the cost per class ranges from 62 yuan to 376 yuan.

Among them, the less common incense experience, impromptu performances, African drums, etc. are quite expensive in the market, and the teachers of the night school courses are guaranteed, which can be said to be great value for money.

The "grand spectacle" of 650,000 people in Shanghai taking classes online has ignited the "night school craze" across the country.

Different from the public welfare nature of citizen night schools in Shanghai, night schools in Beijing, Shenzhen and other places are usually organized by the people themselves.

Organizers usually post to find students, and establish a more private WeChat group by counting high-frequency wishes in the comment area and combining existing teachers. Once the number of people reaches the target, the class can be started as a group.

When searching for notes with the keyword "night school" on Xiaohongshu, among the 243 popular notes, excluding Shanghai, those from Guangdong, Beijing, and Zhejiang accounted for the largest proportions, reaching 10.7%, 9.1%, and 7.8% respectively. These notes are mainly used for recruiting students, and students’ personal experience sharing is rare.

After combing through night school courses in various places based on different IP addresses, we found that the preferred night school styles vary from place to place.

Night schools in Shanghai cover a wide range of subjects, but they sound more general. Musical instruments, dance, baking, makeup, handmade leather goods, Tai Chi, incense, improvisation...

Beijing's night schools are more unique, with mural production, film development and even ore collection, making the imperial capital's historical heritage and the temperament of the niche literary youth vividly come to life.

When arriving in Shenzhen, the style changed suddenly. Many night schools offered Cantonese, Japanese, French, English and other language courses, aiming to improve themselves and live up to the title of Shenzhen's "City of Struggle".

In Guangzhou, night classes are inseparable from health preservation. Qi and blood conditioning, soup making, and traditional Chinese medicine... are all popular courses.

Night school has also spread to second- and third-tier cities. Young people in these cities prefer courses such as entrepreneurial guidance, mobile photography, and self-media operations. This may be related to the rapid development of the Internet celebrity live broadcast industry in these cities.

Night schools in some cities reflect strong local characteristics, such as mahjong teaching in Chengdu, Thangka and Mongolian language in Hohhot, blueberry planting in Foshan, and tea making around the stove in Changsha.

In the Weibo topic "Why young people rush to attend night school", in addition to "cheapness", "cultivating interest" is also a factor mentioned frequently.

"Finish the interest classes I didn't take when I was a kid."

"The love you had when you were a child will be the regret you have as an adult. Use your financial ability when you grow up to entertain your child self generously. Use the infinite love you had as a child to desperately look for your grown-up self and enrich yourself again."

Adults also want to have their own interest classes and "restart" their lives. This is especially obvious in first-tier cities. Taking Shanghai as an example, night school courses are different from vocational skills training and examination training. For young people, they are actually more like interest classes.

The "2023 Baidu Adult Training Industry White Paper" shows that from 2016 to 2022, the scale of China's adult education market has expanded year by year, rising from 663.7 billion yuan to 1,327.1 billion yuan, nearly doubling.

Among them, the search volume for adult interest training grew the fastest year-on-year, reaching 38%. In contrast, vocational training, which is traditional adult education, increased by only 9%.

Relieving stress and broadening social interaction have also become the motivations for many young people to attend night classes.

Houlang Research Institute's "2022 Youth Stress Relief Report" shows that on a 5-point scale, the average stress value of contemporary young people is 3.73, and the main sources of stress are career/study and money. Data shows that whether they are born in the 1980s or 2000s, more people feel the most stressed when staying with colleagues.

A survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center among 1,988 young people aged 18-35 working hard in big cities showed that 97.2% of the young people surveyed admitted that they felt lonely, and 20.6% of the young people surveyed often felt lonely.

Night classes have become a way for migrant workers to heal themselves outside of the fast-paced work and life.

Night school courses do not require exams. A performance on stage or a flow experience can bring participants back to a more pure happiness.

Compared with the popular online "paid knowledge courses" in previous years, night classes are more like an ideal offline social place for young people.

There is no social pressure brought by acquaintances here, making it easier and more interesting for young people to enjoy their off-duty life while making friends with common interests.

While night classes are highly sought after, they also receive complaints.

Take Shanghai's citizen night schools as an example. During the registration stage, many people were "dissuaded" from enrolling due to the commuting distance and difficulty in getting courses. When it comes to the class stage, some people will find that meeting attendance standards requires perseverance, that the chosen courses are of a certain degree of difficulty, and that there are a lot of homework/exercises after class, etc.

From a rational point of view, if you want to truly master a skill or continue to develop your hobbies, night classes are just a starting point.

Therefore, in addition to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and other cities currently providing night school courses for young people through art museums, youth palaces, cultural palaces, etc., night schools in more cities are private in nature, and personal agencies and training institutions in the market have become these private night schools The person in charge.

Agencies and institutions can attract students at low prices and further develop long-term members, while students can also transition to advanced courses through night classes to conduct in-depth exploration of areas of interest. However, without subsidies, subsequent cost-effectiveness, teachers, course resources, and even venues will face more instability.

How to retain the traffic and popularity of exciting night schools still requires more thinking and measures from various places on how to regulate and manage night schools and protect the consumer rights of night school students.