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‘Ant tribe’ lives above ground in shabby rooms
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Shanghai doesn’t have a subterranean “rat tribe,” but it does have an “ant tribe.”
If you are a 1980s-generation college graduate, working a job paying less than 2,000 yuan (US$330) a month, sharing an apartment and commuting for more than two hours a day, then you are an “ant.”
The buzzword “ant tribe” describes China’s post-1980s generation grads from rural areas and small towns who dream of a better life in big cities but struggle with low-paying jobs and poor living standards.
Lian Si, then a postdoctoral researcher at Peking University, coined the term comparing these people with ants: “They live in colonies in cramped areas. They’re intelligent and hardworking, yet anonymous and underpaid.”
The ant tribe is considered the “fourth disadvantaged social class” in the Chinese social paradigm, alongside traditionally disadvantaged classes of the farmers, migrant workers and laid-off workers of state-owned corporations.
To save money, ants rent small rooms or cram together with three or four people into room of less than 15 square meters. Conditions are spartan, with little furniture and no air-conditioning. Some rooms are windowless and some tenants share a bathroom.
According to Lian, ants are between 22 and 29 years old, earning between 1,000-2,500 yuan a month, spending an average 377 yuan on rent and 529 yuan on food. So they just get by.
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