Since 2007, Lian Si, a young scholar and his team has been conducting an ongoing study of the so-called ant tribe, which refers to young Chinese graduates who live on low salaries in crowded conditions. Recently, the team released a series of statistics from their studies, China Youth Daily reported on Dec. 9.
"Ant Tribe",("Yi Zu" in Chinese), published in 2009, features a series of in-depth social reports on the life struggles of university graduates of the post-80s generation in China. Chief editor and co-author Lian Si has started his study on the "Ant Tribe" community since 2007.
In more than half a year's time, Lian and his team went to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chongqing and Nanjing, where most of China's ant tribe members stay, to investigate their living and working conditions.
The team sent out more than 5,000 questionnaires and received 4,800 valid ones, which formed the basis for the first report on the lives of China's ant tribe.
From the investigation, some new facts about the ant tribes were revealed. The education levels of ant tribe members have increased. It is more difficult for ant tribe members to move upwards, and most them choose to leave the big cities when they reach their 30s. About 50 percent of ant tribe members refuse to identify themselves as disadvantaged.
Some master's degree holders join ant tribes
In this year, the number of ant tribe members with master's degrees increased by 5.6 percent over last year in Beijing, and the number who accepted undergraduate education increased to 50 percent from last year's 32 percent.
At the same time, the proportion of ant tribe members who graduated from China's best universities increased too. According to the report, nearly 29 percent of Beijing's ant tribe graduated from 211 Project Universities, which is 28.1 percent more than last year and indicates the hard situation on the domestic job market. Among ant tribe members, graduates from average universities account for the most and take a rate of 52.3 per cent.
Unstable employment pushes ant tribe to leave at age 30
Most ant tribe members are between 22 to 29 years old, and most of them are post-1980s generation. However, the proportion over 30 years old increased 2.4 percent year-on-year, which indicates that it is more difficult for ant tribe members to move up into the ranks of the social elites.
The report also says over half of the ant tribe changed jobs within the year, and every person changed jobs 1.7 times on average. Nearly 30 percent of them changed jobs twice.
Regarding incomes, the average salary of this year's interviewees is around 1,900 yuan per month, and 60 percent of them earn below 2,000 yuan per month.
According to the studies, most of the ant tribe would choose to leave the cities where they are staying when they turn into 30 years old if they cannot realize their dreams within about five years after graduation.
50 percent of ant tribe claim not disadvantaged
Among the interviewees, 65.1 percent of them concede they belong to the ant tribe, 12.3 per cent of them think they were formerly part of the ant tribe, and 1.7 percent of them believe they are going to become a member. However, nearly 21 percent deny they are in this group.
Although people usually would think of the ant tribe as a disadvantaged group, more than half of them deny such a label.
From the report, 83.6 per cent of interviewees believe their social economic positions are going to be advanced in next five to 10 years, and 65.6 percent of interviewees are confident in their future successes, which shows the ant tribe has optimism about their futures.
