From Overseas Press

China's young college grads toil in 'ant tribes'

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-28 14:24

"I don't sweat that much in the winter and it's not cheap, so we shower when we need to," says Shang, a petite 22-year-old from Cangzhou, a city two hours outside Beijing.

The competition for jobs is fierce. Nearly 70 percent of high school graduates are expected to enroll in university this year, according to state media, compared with 20 percent in the 1980s. There are more college graduates than readily available jobs—a once unthinkable situation.

"Trying to find a job that pays enough to survive is much harder than I imagined," says Ren Yanguang, who makes $150 a month as an intern at a local software company in Beijing, where the average income is four times that. "It's frustrating because if I don't find a job soon, then I'll have no choice but to leave."

Most Tangjialing dwellers, Lian says, come from farms and small cities and don't want to return, fearing the boredom or being labeled failures.

"It sure sounds good if you're a parent and you tell the whole village your son is working in the capital," Lian says. "And it's a huge deterrent because they want their family to be proud."

Ning Guochao and his colleague Ma Bing, both construction site managers, joke about how small their new homes are at Tangjialing.

"My kitchen back home is three times the size of this room," Ma says, looking at Ning's apartment, a bare concrete room with a wardrobe and bed that nearly take up the whole space.

"Don't be silly, we all have kitchens this size back home," Ning replies. "But this is Beijing, not some rural village."

"Sure, we tell our relatives we live in Beijing, but look at this," Ma says. "It's a dump and we're barely touching the city, like we're almost in Hebei," referring to the neighboring province.

For Liu, the computer engineer, coming to the capital city was a chance to live China's version of the American dream. In his final year at Northeast Petroleum University, he rebuffed his parents' efforts to get him a cushy job at a state-owned company back home in Jixi city. "I came to Beijing because I wanted freedom from them, too," Liu says.