China's 'ant tribe' between dreams and reality


By Chen Siwu and Li Yahong
Asia Times
Jan 15, 2010


BEIJING - Every day, Yang Hongwei takes the bus home from work, staring silently at the European-style villas, luxury sedans and twinkling lights from the plazas he sees through the window.

The 25-year-old from northeast China's Heilongjiang province dreams of such a life away from poverty, and that hope has kept him in Beijing for the three years since he graduated from university.

Soon, Yang squeezes his way off the bus to the reality of his life: a collection of ramshackle buildings clustered on garbage-littered lanes at Tangjialing village in northern Beijing. He scoots home - a 10-square-meter room that costs 550 yuan (US$81), or about one-fifth of his salary, in rent every month.

"It's very cold inside the house, as it has no central heating system, but I am getting used to it," he says as he pulls his coat tight around his body.

Yang says many of his fellow graduates and tenants at Tangjialing have to endure the same long and cold winter.

He also has to endure being alone in a money-centered society like Beijing. "How dare I date a girl? That costs," he rues. He has not courted a girl since coming to Beijing in 2006, after graduating from Heilongjiang's Daqing Petroleum Institute.

Many other low-income graduates who have moved into China’s big cities share Yang’s frustration over life as a migrant. Together they have come to be called the "ant tribe", a term coined by Chinese sociologists to describe the struggles of young migrants, who, armed with their diplomas, flock to big cities in hopes of a better life only to put up with low-paying jobs and poor living conditions.

Many live in villages with cheap rent, like Tangjialing. This village, for instance, originally had a population of 3,000, but it has exploded to 50,000 with the influx new "ant tribe" villagers.

"They are like ants: clever, weak and living in groups," says Lian Si, a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Chinese and Global Affairs of Peking University, who has studied the phenomenon. For two years, Lian led a team of more than 100 graduate students to follow the groups in university towns like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an.

In his book Ant Tribe, published in September 2009, Lian estimates the total population of the "ant community" in major cities across China at one million, with about 100,000 found in Beijing alone.

Most are from poor rural families and take temporary and low-paying jobs as insurance agents, electronic product sales representatives and waiters. Some are either unemployed or underemployed.

Lian, also an associate professor at the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics, predicts that an increasingly challenging job market will see the group growing further in number.

The number of China's graduates aged 22 to 29 has been expanding since the country massively increased its university enrollment in 2003. Another 6.3 million graduates are expected to join migrant workers and other job hunters in what promises to be a fierce labor competition this year.

On top of poor living conditions, the "ant community" also contends with a lack of social security in Beijing, where the official average monthly salary in 2008 was about 4,000 yuan. The average member earns only half that.

As in the case of Yang, marriage, for now at least, does not seem to be an option for the "ants", about 93% of whom are unmarried, Lian estimates. Soaring housing prices and rents drive them to cheap rooms of up to 10 square meters in villages. The rent for a single room downtown could be at least 2,000 yuan a month, equivalent to a month's earnings for a young migrant.

Cheap accommodation means a long and crowded journey to work. As only six bus routes link Tangjialing to downtown Beijing, a workday begins by wedging oneself into a congested vehicle.

"It's hard getting on the bus," says Yang, who works for a software company in Zhongguancun, often referred to as China's Silicon Valley. For him and many other young and struggling migrants, the pursuit of the urban dream is the only way to a better life for their families back home. Trekking back to their rural communities is tantamount to an admission of failure to achieve their goals in the cities.

Determined to achieve their dreams, the "ants" switch jobs twice a year on average for better pay and personal development. Yang says he has changed jobs "numerous" times in the past three years and is considering quitting his current job. He is optimistic about getting a new one soon, having received eight interview offers in a week after sending out his resume. The prospect of landing a higher-paying job gives him hope he'll move out of Tangjialing soon.

"I hope I can leave soon; the sooner the better, but that needs money," he says. "A fellow living upstairs stayed at the village for three years," Yang adds with obvious envy. "Then he bought a home downtown after he was promoted to department manager.

"For myself, I've set a timetable of three more years in Beijing. If I can't improve my situation, I will return to my hometown."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LA15Ad02.html