Photo: trt.net.tr

Modern Western culture has its stories of people who were once unemployed, but went on to become successful. JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book while living off benefits. Quentin Tarantino conceived his breakthrough film, Reservoir Dogs, also whilst unemployed. But this does not tell the whole truth of how demeaning, and exhausting, a life without employment can be. As Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, "You take my life when you take away my means of making a living." It is natural to derive one's identity from one's job.

This time last year, in Shenzhen alone, 150,000 graduates descended on the city looking for work. Liu Yi, 22, from Hunan, came to Shenzhen in July 2009, directly after graduating in English from Hunan University of Arts and Sciences. She succeeded, after a one month search, in finding a job, one that offered her 2000 Yuan a month. The salary is enough to live on, but her living-quarters give an explanation as to why her generation has been labeled "ants": hard-working, tolerant, and willing to live in squalor.

Liu Yi's story is typical. She and her parents made great sacrifices to get her a tertiary education, in the belief that their learning would give them a better life. Add to that, they are in China, the world's most competitive society, and one that, historically, has had so much reverence for books and the bookish. All Chinese school children learn the Sui Dynasty poem that says: "In books there is always a beautiful woman, in books there is always a Golden house."

But many of these graduates don't get the opportunity to apply their knowledge to the working world. And for those lucky enough to find work, there is a completely different set of frustrations. The Chinese job market is a particularly cruel one. The size of the labour force can always drag starting-salaries down, and for the urban young, a willingness to tolerate poor living conditions is almost essential.

Chen Man, 20, from Sichuan, is also an English major. Her goal is to become a translator, but she is highly unlikely to start on anything more than 2000 Yuan a month if she goes to a big city to search for a job. Her career opportunities may also be restricted by her height. At 155 cm, she will find it difficult to get a good job as a translator, because height and beauty requirements are common.

What are the advantages of this situation? Lack of job security means that one is not trapped on a single career-path. Periods of unemployment allow a person to be alone with their thoughts. It also means that it is not necessary to set the alarm clock. With long-term job security so hard to come by, is this the dawn of the more flexible 'gig' economy?

What advice can one give these young people? Were their years spent in tertiary education wasted? In 2004, I was enchanted by an article by the novelist Libby Purves. In the article she argues that the education-system does not breed self-confidence. By self-confidence she means thoughtful observation of the real world (not a TV screen); respect for the experience of our elders, an awareness of one's own abilities, and a willingness to go on learning.

Is the education system producing confident people? There is a famous speech delivered to a graduating class by the Dean of Beijing University. In it he warns his students, as they enter their adult lives, and develop adult-concerns: they will find it easy to misplace their childish hunger for knowledge; but they should not. He also warns them that on entering the cruel and indifferent, so-called “real world”, they may abandon their dreams and ideals, as at first sight, their ideals may seem incompatible with the real world. But this is also a mistake. A higher education is not the only way of becoming a rounded and successful person, but it certainly helps.

One of China's most notorious social-phenomena is its nouveau-riche: those who have attained wealth without bookish knowledge, and are widely accused of displaying their wealth crudely, and being responsible for moral decay in the society. Whatever miseries the current generation of graduates have to endure, they will always have their student years, just as Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman will always have Paris. And they should, like Ralph Richardson in the History Boys, remember: "All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use."

It is not the best time in history to be graduating in China, but with some real confidence as defined above, success is attainable. What advice would I give to a graduating student? I would borrow a quote from Bertrand Russell: "The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible."
 

Kevin’s blog

Related links
China’s University Students Rattled by Prospect of Post-graduate Unemployment
Female Graduates Face Less Pay, Fewer Jobs
An Education: How China’s System Differs From the West’s

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: unemployment China Chinese job market Graduate unemployment China