Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
'Iron rice bowl' becomes the ideal
By Yao Yuan and Ni Yuanjin |
October 31, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CAO Bin's dream job in China's officialdom belies the popular image of a tea-drinking bureaucrat reading newspapers in an air-conditioned office, or dozing off at long meetings.
The postgraduate at China Foreign Affairs University has applied for a position with the China Earthquake Administration. The job will catapult him into quake-hit regions across the world, interpreting for China's rescue teams.
Cao's choice, however, is considered "weird, harsh and dangerous" by his peers. Only 24 people have applied for the same position, making it one of the least sought-after jobs in the upcoming civil service recruitment tests scheduled to open early next year.
The most desired position, by contrast, is with the statistical bureau in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, where more than 9,000 candidates are vying for the opening.
Unabated craze
The craze for government jobs remains unabated, due to a sustained increase in the number of new graduates and traditional beliefs that government jobs are secure.
A record 1.5 million candidates applied online for about 20,000 government jobs in the upcoming tests, according to State Civil Servants Administration. The most coveted positions are with central government agencies in Beijing, and customs and taxation offices in provincial and local governments.
Maggie Li, a doctoral student at Peking University who prefers to use her English name, believes her future lies in a government job. Li dismisses other jobs as "inferior."
Government employment has been popular among Chinese college graduates, who hold traditional beliefs that government jobs are "iron rice bowls," meaning they have secure pay, welfare and a job until they retire, no matter what.
This year, a record 6.8 million students graduated from China's universities. A recent survey by a popular social networking website renren.com said about 24 percent of college graduates wish to enter government, though other estimates put the ratio much higher.
Unhealthy sign
The public craze for "iron rice bowls" is an unhealthy social sign. "It suggests a lack of public confidence in the private sector, where jobs are considered insecure and less respectable," said Liu Yuebo, a school official handling graduation issues at Nankai University in Tianjin.
Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at Beijing's China Renming University, said the "brain drain" of government employees in the 1980s had now been reversed. "In those years, many officials were eager to become businesspeople. But today, almost everyone wishes to work for the government."
Zhou added: "Most applicants for government jobs want to become bureaucrats and enjoy esteem and power. Few think about serving the country and people. This is a bad trend."
To cope with increasing number of job seekers, the difficulty of the national test has been raised significantly over the years, while more positions require candidates to have work experience in rural, remote and impoverished regions.
Another trend that baffles sociologists is that many applicants, lacking a clear career plan, wish to join the civil service to seek comfort rather than personal development.
Many have vague ideas about government work and simply follow the conventional wisdom that equates civil service to stability and fat pay envelopes.
"Many of my friends have applied for the taxation bureau simply because the job sounds well-paid, but few people know what it's really about," said Zhang Shiqi, who has applied for a post in the taxation bureau in the city of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang Province.
Zhang blames the problem on the opaqueness of China's civil service, which usually offers little job description and few internship opportunities.
Many newly recruited government employees feel disappointed after the daily job proves boring and poorly paid.
"I used to dream of the easy life in the government, drinking tea and reading newspapers all day long. But now I've realized that life only exists in my dreams," said Fang Zhong, who works in a public security bureau in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.
Changing jobs
Fang, 24, described his daily work as backbreaking, involving extra hours daily, constant midnight calls and, worst of all, no time to date.
Posted to a police station, Fang patrols the streets, handles criminal cases and answers emergency calls - tasks unrelated with his IT major in college.
Fang is now considering changing jobs, but still prefers to stay on the government payroll rather than taking up an "unstable" job in the private sector. "I may take the exam again next year. Maybe jobs in taxation and customs bureaus will be more promising," he said.
The authors are Xinhua writers.
The postgraduate at China Foreign Affairs University has applied for a position with the China Earthquake Administration. The job will catapult him into quake-hit regions across the world, interpreting for China's rescue teams.
Cao's choice, however, is considered "weird, harsh and dangerous" by his peers. Only 24 people have applied for the same position, making it one of the least sought-after jobs in the upcoming civil service recruitment tests scheduled to open early next year.
The most desired position, by contrast, is with the statistical bureau in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, where more than 9,000 candidates are vying for the opening.
Unabated craze
The craze for government jobs remains unabated, due to a sustained increase in the number of new graduates and traditional beliefs that government jobs are secure.
A record 1.5 million candidates applied online for about 20,000 government jobs in the upcoming tests, according to State Civil Servants Administration. The most coveted positions are with central government agencies in Beijing, and customs and taxation offices in provincial and local governments.
Maggie Li, a doctoral student at Peking University who prefers to use her English name, believes her future lies in a government job. Li dismisses other jobs as "inferior."
Government employment has been popular among Chinese college graduates, who hold traditional beliefs that government jobs are "iron rice bowls," meaning they have secure pay, welfare and a job until they retire, no matter what.
This year, a record 6.8 million students graduated from China's universities. A recent survey by a popular social networking website renren.com said about 24 percent of college graduates wish to enter government, though other estimates put the ratio much higher.
Unhealthy sign
The public craze for "iron rice bowls" is an unhealthy social sign. "It suggests a lack of public confidence in the private sector, where jobs are considered insecure and less respectable," said Liu Yuebo, a school official handling graduation issues at Nankai University in Tianjin.
Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at Beijing's China Renming University, said the "brain drain" of government employees in the 1980s had now been reversed. "In those years, many officials were eager to become businesspeople. But today, almost everyone wishes to work for the government."
Zhou added: "Most applicants for government jobs want to become bureaucrats and enjoy esteem and power. Few think about serving the country and people. This is a bad trend."
To cope with increasing number of job seekers, the difficulty of the national test has been raised significantly over the years, while more positions require candidates to have work experience in rural, remote and impoverished regions.
Another trend that baffles sociologists is that many applicants, lacking a clear career plan, wish to join the civil service to seek comfort rather than personal development.
Many have vague ideas about government work and simply follow the conventional wisdom that equates civil service to stability and fat pay envelopes.
"Many of my friends have applied for the taxation bureau simply because the job sounds well-paid, but few people know what it's really about," said Zhang Shiqi, who has applied for a post in the taxation bureau in the city of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang Province.
Zhang blames the problem on the opaqueness of China's civil service, which usually offers little job description and few internship opportunities.
Many newly recruited government employees feel disappointed after the daily job proves boring and poorly paid.
"I used to dream of the easy life in the government, drinking tea and reading newspapers all day long. But now I've realized that life only exists in my dreams," said Fang Zhong, who works in a public security bureau in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.
Changing jobs
Fang, 24, described his daily work as backbreaking, involving extra hours daily, constant midnight calls and, worst of all, no time to date.
Posted to a police station, Fang patrols the streets, handles criminal cases and answers emergency calls - tasks unrelated with his IT major in college.
Fang is now considering changing jobs, but still prefers to stay on the government payroll rather than taking up an "unstable" job in the private sector. "I may take the exam again next year. Maybe jobs in taxation and customs bureaus will be more promising," he said.
The authors are Xinhua writers.
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