Today QQ news ran a story on “ant people” in Wuhan (“江蚁” — Sogou doesn’t list that one as a word yet). According to the article, Wuhan has the largest number of university graduates of any Chinese city, with the total number of graduates in 2009 reaching somewhere around 250 000. Although no one knows for sure how many of these young people end up in low-income jobs, according to estimates there could be anywhere from around 50 000 to 100 000 “ant people” in Wuhan.

One of the “ant people” interviewed for the article works in a photo studio, with a salary of 1000 yuan per month. She shares a room with two others in a similar situation, and her share of the rent is 260 yuan per month. They don’t have a kitchen, so for breakfast she has 热干面, (hot and dry noodles, a Wuhan specialty) or 素粉 (plain noodles), for lunch it’s 盒饭 (a boxed lunch with rice and one or a few pre-prepared dishes) for less than 5 yuan, and then something simple for dinner, for a total of less than 10 yuan per day. To help cover monthly expenses, some people take on monthly jobs, and others roll out blankets or set up small stalls to sell things on the street after work.

The author of the article points out that although the “ant people” phenomenon, with its own specific characteristics, is new, the 80s and 90s saw the unemployed youth (待业青年) and the “north and south drifters” (南漂北漂). In each generation, young people lead difficult lives. What particularly defines the difficulties facing the generation born in the 80s is the growing gap between rich and poor and the lack of a social safety net to protect those who fall behind. The issue certainly seems to have struck a chord with young people all over China — even many whose lives aren’t as difficult as those of the “ant people” can still relate to the struggles of finding a job and saving up for a house, and share the dream of a safe and stable future.

According to the book, this “ant generation” makes up a fourth disadvantaged group in society, in addition to farmers, migrant workers, an laid-off workers. Although they have a high level of education, they can only find low-paid and usually temporary work (with no contracts or insurance), or spend their time traveling to different parts of the city for job interviews. Like ants, they’re intelligent, they live in groups, and although they’re weak individually, collectively they can wreak havoc. They’re also hardworking, and they always seem to manage to find ways around any obstacles placed in their way.

The plight of the “ant generation” seems to have stricken a chord, especially among people my age, who either know people in this situation or know that this could easily be them if they’re unlucky when the time comes to find a job. To see more on what their lives are like, take a look at these youku clips (in Chinese) here, here (where you’ll see Happy Farmer being played on a computer in a tiny apartment) and here (to see how it’s possible to eat in Beijing for just 10 yuan a day).

If lots of university graduates are working low-paid and relatively low-skilled jobs, that seems to imply that there’s probably an oversupply of university graduates. (At the same time, there’s often talk about China’s talent shortage, especially at the highest levels, but this probably has more to do with the quality of university education than the number of people with degrees). In a country that places such an incredibly high value on education, it makes sense that more people might pursue advanced degrees than the market needs, and reducing the number of degree spots would probably be incredibly unpopular.

But even if more people getting university degrees than the economy right now needs is one factor, there’s probably more at play that just that. Another possible factor is that too many people are moving to big cities after graduation, maybe because of unrealistic expectations of job opportunities in places like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and people who are the first in their family or village to get a university education probably feel a lot of pressure to make full use of that degree. And the high cost of living in big cities is due in large part to high house prices, made worse by a possible housing bubble that has been partly fueled by government politics and the way in which the stimulus package was spent. Or maybe, like people here would likely say, 中国人太多了, and this kind of situation is inevitable in a country that has so many people.

Either way, I have nothing but respect for how hardworking Chinese people of my generation are, and I’m very grateful that I don’t need to buy an apartment in a Chinese mega-city just yet.