美媒驚奇中國年輕人找工作靠啃老拼爹

They don't want to work in factories or farms, but at the same time, the white-collar lifestyle remains far out of reach.

據美國《赫芬頓郵報》網站9月26日報道，中國的畢業生們不想去做工或種地，但白領生活方式始終遙不可及。

For the 7.27 million Chinese students who graduated from college last year -- a number roughly 2.5 times the US figure -- the job market can be brutal: low salaries, long hours and the knowledge that there are millions of other people just waiting to replace you. Those realities look even harsher when you compare the bargain-basement salaries earned by the average Chinese young adult with the exorbitant wealth of China's well-connected.

美媒稱，對今年畢業的727萬中國大學生來說，就業市場可能十分嚴峻：薪水低，工時長，數百萬其他人隨時等着頂替你。若把中國普通年輕人的微薄工資與那些有門路中國人的鉅額財富相比，這些現實就愈發殘酷了。

"It's just ruthless out here," said Wu Shaomei, a chemistry master's student at Northwest University in Xi'an, as she surveyed the crowds of college grads vying for telemarketing jobs at a local job fair last week. "Everywhere you look in this city there are rich people driving luxury cars, but I could work these jobs a whole lifetime and never make enough to buy one of those tires."

西安市西北大學化學系碩士生吳曉梅(音)上週參加了當地的一個招聘會，看着眼前爭奪電信營銷崗位的大學生人羣，她感嘆：“形勢太無情了，在這座城市裏，放眼望去到處都是開豪車的有錢人，而我可能從事這些工作一輩子也買不起那些車的一個輪胎。”

China's glut of college grads has been described in national media as a triumph of state-orchestrated education expansion, but it's also created an expectation gap when it comes to the job market. New graduates, many of them first-generation students who grew up on farms, were raised to believe a college degree was a sure route to a comfortable life. But at end-of-summer job fairs, many of these graduates are finding themselves offered salaries lower than what factory workers earn.

國家媒體稱大學畢業生供過於求是政府擴招計劃的成就，但它也造成了就業市場上的期望差距。新畢業生當中有很多人是在農村長大的，他們從小被灌輸的信念是：上了大學就能過上好日子。但在暑期的招聘會上，很多這種畢業生髮現，他們能得到的薪水比工人的工資還低。

In the early years of the Great Recession, some American youth saw the grim job market as an opportunity for "funemployment," but China has coined a different term: "gnawing on the old." The term refers to Chinese youth who don't earn enough to pay the bills, and thus end up "gnawing" through their parents' savings. With average starting salaries of $400 per month and just one day off a week, recent grads in major cities often have little hope of achieving anything resembling financial independence early in their careers.

在大蕭條初期，一些美國年輕人把就業市場低迷視作當“失業快樂族”的機會，但中國有另外一個詞：“啃老”。這個詞是指中國年輕人入不敷出，於是要“啃”父母的積蓄。大城市近年的大學畢業生平均起始工資爲每月400美元，根本沒有希望在就業之初就實現什麼經濟獨立。

"This kind of rapid expansion has never been seen -- not just in China, but anywhere in the world," said Xu Qingshan, a professor of education at Wuhan University's College of Education Science. "The fundamental reason behind the bad job market for graduates has been this huge expansion in enrollment."

武漢大學教育科學學院教授胥青山說：“這種快速擴張不僅在中國，在全世界任何地方都是前所未有的，就業形勢不好的根本原因就是這種擴招。”

Much of that growth has come from rural students who are often the first in their family to leave the farm. At school, they may encounter a cosmopolitan world their parents never dreamed of -- but once graduation rolls around, they face an even more grueling job search than their urban peers.

新增大學畢業生有相當大一部分來自農村，通常是家裏第一個脫離種地的人。在學校，他們也許面對着父輩做夢都沒想過的大都會世界，而一旦畢業來臨，他們找工作的難度遠甚於城裏同齡人。

According to a study by Tian Feng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the unemployment rate among college graduates from urban families is about 12 percent, while for graduates from rural backgrounds it's 30 percent. And the gap looks even wider when considering that recent graduates from urban backgrounds earn around 20 percent more than their rural peers.

根據中國社科院社會學所研究員田豐的調查，城市家庭出身的大學畢業生的失業率約爲12%，而農村家庭出身的則爲30%。如果考慮到最近城市背景的大學畢業生比農村背景的畢業生薪水高出20%，差距看起來就顯得更大了。

"The urban-rural employment gap for college graduates is one of the clearest expressions of the hardening of barriers to social mobility," Tian told China National Radio in February. "This is having a major impact on social equity."

田豐說：“大學畢業生就業的城鄉差異就是當前社會流動固化的一個具體表現，也是最爲突出的表現之一。這極大地影響到了社會公平。”

Wang Junying grew up in Red Star Village in rural Sichuan. As a middle school student, she spent her spare time collecting cow dung for the family's furnace, and in high school her summer job consisted of tending the flock of ducks that would later be sold to pay her tuition. When it came time for the college entrance exam, Wang's parents encouraged her, but also presented her with a backup plan."Before the test my dad told me, 'Don't worry. If you can't test into college I'll buy you a tractor,'" Wang recalled. "Back then, my only thought was that I've got to do whatever it takes to get into college. I just didn't want to drive a tractor."

王俊英(音)出生在四川一個小村莊。王俊英說：“高考前，我爸爸對我說：‘別擔心，考不上大學我就給你買臺拖拉機。’那時，我唯一的想法就是我無論如何都要上大學。我就是不想開拖拉機。”

After Wang finished a business English degree at a community college in Xi'an, her mother offered to arrange a teaching job for her at the village elementary school. But the position came with one hitch: It would take an $11,000 bribe just to secure the position, which paid around $4,000 per year.

王俊英去了西安一所大專學習商務英語，畢業後，母親提出給她找一個在小學教書的工作。不過這個職位不是白來的：家裏要拿出6萬多元錢走關係，而這個職位的年薪不過兩萬多元。

Growth in decent jobs has lagged far behind the non-stop bumper crops of college grads, and competition for scarce positions often comes down to family connections and cold hard cash. China is almost two years into one of its most intense corruption crackdowns in decades, but young Chinese job-seekers still report being extorted for huge sums of money that dwarf their would-be salaries.

體面的工作崗位的增加數量遠遠趕不上一茬又一茬畢業的大學生的人數，對於一些稀缺崗位的競爭往往最終成了家庭關係網和財力的比拼。中國幾十年來最猛烈的反腐行動已開展近兩年時間，但是年輕的求職者們仍然要面對比他們可能得到的薪水高出一大截的敲詐勒索。

Knowing her farming family would have trouble paying the needed money, Wang remained in Xi'an and eventually found a job teaching English for about $300 a month -- a salary comparable to what she would have earned at the other job, without the burden of the accompanying bribe.

王俊英知道家裏很難拿出那麼一大筆錢，於是她留在了西安，並最終找到了一份工作，每月薪水將近2000元，這與家裏幫她聯繫的小學教師的職位相當，但沒有走關係帶來的沉重負擔。

The pay-to-play nature of China's job market means that while wealthy urban youth can "gnaw" on their parents' money and networks to get ahead, young men and women from the countryside are often left with nothing but middling diplomas.

中國就業市場的這種現狀意味着出身富裕城市家庭的年輕人或許可以靠“啃”父母的金錢和人脈取得成功，可是來自農村的年輕人除了一紙文憑外，往往一無所有。