Lijia Zhang

Opinion | As China’s jobless youth liken themselves to Kong Yiji, Beijing’s tone-deaf response is not helping

With youth unemployment hitting a record high in China, some jobless graduates are using a 1919 story to express their frustration

The authorities have responded with critical articles on the negativity of young Chinese, when much more needs to be done

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Attendees at a job fair in Shanghai on May 20. China’s record youth unemployment rate has the authorities concerned. Photo: Bloomberg

Lijia Zhang

Published: 6:15am, 24 May 2023

The character of Kong Yiji, a pathetic scholar who fails the imperial examination and struggles to make a living, appeared in a story by literary great Lu Xun first published in 1919. A century on, the character is being dusted off and rediscovered in China by educated, unemployed young people.

China is experiencing a youth unemployment crisis. According to government data, the urban jobless rate in April stood at 5.2 per cent while the rate for 16- to 24-year-olds reached a record 20.4 per cent. University graduates are doing even worse and are unemployed at 1.4 times the rate of youth in general, according to Zhuo Xian, vice department director at the Development Research Centre of the State Council.

Some of these unemployed graduates have started to identify with Kong Yiji, who in the story wears the long gown of the educated elite and clings to his image as an intellectual who works with his brains, not his hands.

In February, an online post titled “Academic qualifications are not only a stepping stone, but also a pedestal I can’t step off, and the robe Kong Yiji can’t take off” sparked a heated debate about the struggles of both the character and China’s educated youth.

University education has served as a social leveller in China. Higher education in the country has grown significantly. It is estimated that by this summer, 11.58 million university graduates will enter the job market, up from 10.76 million a year ago. Until recently, as China’s economy galloped ahead, those with a degree could pick and choose which jobs to take up.

Then the pandemic hit, drastically slowing the economy and leading to a slack job market. To add frost to snow, crackdowns on tech and tutoring, major employers of the young and educated, resulted in large-scale lay-offs.

Opinion | As China’s jobless youth liken themselves to Kong Yiji, Beijing’s tone-deaf response is not helping

With youth unemployment hitting a record high in China, some jobless graduates are using a 1919 story to express their frustration The authorities have responded with critical articles on the negativity of young Chinese, when much more needs to be done

With youth unemployment hitting a record high in China, some jobless graduates are using a 1919 story to express their frustration

The authorities have responded with critical articles on the negativity of young Chinese, when much more needs to be done