Whether you are a Dog or a Dragon, Chinese New Year is usually a time of great angst.

The pain is especially acute if you are in your twenties. You might consider yourself an ‘adult’, but your relatives definitely won’t. In Chinese culture, one does not become an adult until your firstborn child disappoints you with his or her PSLE result.

Until then, prepare to have your cheeks pinched and to answer for why you are unemployed/poor/unmarried/single/fat/skinny/short/tall/dark/light/you.

These annoying questions, along with the tedious social marathon of house-visiting, are the core of what makes CNY so unpleasant for many. As a result, many Chinese millennials fantasize about telling their relatives to fuck off in subtle, and not so subtle ways.

But what about those who ‘succeed’ in this endeavor? One imagines that those who do not celebrate CNY are having the time of their lives while the rest of us suffer lengthy homilies about how to settle down from a twice-divorced uncle.

To find out, we checked in on a few Chinese people who do not celebrate CNY.