The Joy of Being an Average Joe

By Zhou Zhuben & Li Xiaojuan

Several days ago, I returned to my hometown and noticed something a bit odd: my neighbor’s live-in son-inlaw who had come back during the Tomb Sweeping Festival had gone out again for a job. It wasn’t just him; most of the villagers there had left after the festival for a jobsite somewhere else.

The silkworm industry in my hometown was much better than it had been for the past while, and more than a few of the peasants were making real money; they were purchasing refrigerators,motorcycles and the like in droves with their government subsidies.All of which showed that, to some extent, an economic thaw had taken place.

I had been waiting in line after line for several days trying to process my application for a mortgage, and standing there in the queue at the Housing Administration I noticed among all the hustle and bustle that, of the many kinds of people standing there in that giant hall lining up to get a license, most were elderly men and women, and middleagers. The number of young thirty-somethings like me was so miniscule it almost wasn’t worth mentioning.

If many of the people standing in line for a house in the sales office could just be hired hands there putting on a show, it wouldn’t be the case for the Housing Administration, for the clerks are virtually issuing property ownership certificates on the site.

To me it meant that, with such high housing prices, there were still tremendous demands for real estate, and the source of most sales revenues were still from the life savings of middle-agers or senior citizens, as young people just didn’t have the requisite financial wherewithal.

I have a niece who learned the art of cakery at a vocational school and is in Shanghai doing internship. Finding a job is not a problem, and when she goes fulltime her salary won’t be low. In contrast, her elder sister who is studying economic management at a university is going to graduate in a year but her job prospects are looking pretty bleak. Her younger brother is studying at an automotive school, and many a 4S car dealership is clamoring to hire the graduates from his school.

When I’m recruiting seasonal workers for my farm, I have to take into account how I will pay their salary. Ifipay by the hour,based on an eight hour workday,the minimum payment wouldn’t be lower than 50 yuan per day. Ificalculate it by their yield, then these temporary hires might clear 60 to 80 yuan per day. If it were anything less than this number, they would rather sit at home playing Mahjong and would be extremely reluctant to come out and break their back for starvation wages.

前幾天回了一趟老家，我注意到一個事實：清明時分回到鄰居家的浙江籍上門女婿，又出去打工了。而且不止他一家，大部分返回來的人，又都外出打工了。

在老家，今年養蠶的行市，比往年來得更好一些，很多農民都在賺錢，還有不少人用國家發給農民的補貼買了冰箱、摩托車等。這說明，經濟確實在一定程度上有所回暖。

前幾天辦理房屋貸款手續，在房管局辦證大廳排隊等候的時候，我發現人頭攢動，瞄了幾眼，大致把大廳里辦證的形形色色的人分成幾等：老頭老太太占了大半，中年人又占了很大一部分，年輕人很少，像我這樣三十多歲的，少得可憐。

如果說在售樓處排隊的人很大一部分可能是被雇來作秀的，那么在房管局實實在在地辦證，應該沒有什么人是被雇來唱戲的。

這起碼說明房價雖然高，但交易還是很多，現在房地產的銷售資金來源，很大一部分是中老年人用了自己大半輩子的積蓄，年輕人基本還不具備購房的條件。

我有個侄女在技校學蛋糕制作，現在正在上海實習，就業不是問題，轉正以后，薪水也不會太低。相反，她的姐姐，正在高校學經濟管理，明年畢業以后就業堪憂。她的弟弟，在汽車學校學習，很多汽車4S店都搶著要他們那里的畢業生。

我的農場，在找勞動力打零工的時候，如果按照每天工作8小時計算，最低工資不低于50元。如果按照計件來算，很多臨時工每天都能拿到60元到80元。要是低于這個數字，人家寧可在家里打麻將，也懶得出來賺這份辛苦錢。

前幾個月，陪家人還有朋友做了很多次旅游活動。順便觀察了一下，桂林的旅游狀況并不蕭條，到處都是人，火車站人山人海，飛機場也是人頭攢動。下火車的時候，出租車司機對我這種短途的本市內的游客，還一副愛答不理的樣子。

采購水管的時候，五金店的老板不停地接訂貨電話。很多我需要的東西都缺貨，要幾天以后才有貨；工廠也在加班加點地生產。這位老板說，滴灌的設備前幾天被另外一個種植西瓜的老板買走了，他當時拿了夠50畝的用量。

想來，很多論壇里面的文章，描述的都是資本層面的事，可能很多文章，還是失落的白領寫就的。實際上，小人物的民生生活，很多時候與資本游戲隔離得很遠。實體經濟和草根經濟，無非就是你來我往的買賣而已，有賺有虧。閑生是非忙賺錢，有事情做就不會有太大的事。

在金融危機和經濟危機中，到底誰受傷最重？我認為是剛剛畢業的大學生。畢業即失業，就業又高不成低不就，真的很難。從底層做起，很多人既無精神準備，也沒有實干的一技之長。

In the past few months I happened to go sightseeing with my family and friends and found that tourism industry in Guilin is booming.There are people everywhere,the trains are jam-packed and the airports are bustling.When we got off the train and tried to hail a cab, our request for a short-distance drive within city limits was actually met with a look of cold indifference.

When we were buying pipes at the hardware store the boss there kept receiving orders through the phone behind the counter. Many of the things I needed were sold out and I was told it would take several days to get them—the factories themselves were running extra shifts to keep up with demand. The shop owner told me that, just a few days prior, all the irrigation equipment in his shop had just been sold to the boss of a watermelon farm who had taken enough for 3 hectares.

Presumably, the content of a great many forums speaks of all things capitalism, and maybe just as many write about the drop in the middle class. Actually, the little life of a little guy most often bears little resemblance to that of the game of capitalism.The real economy and the grassroots economy are simply a matter of casual transactions—there is money to be made and lost. Things become messy often when people have too much leisure time, and when you have something to do and some money to make, there won’t be a fuss.

So who gets hurt the most in a financial crisis or a recession? I believe it’s the new graduates. They are unemployed as soon as they graduate. They are underqualified, yet refuse to lower themselves to take a position which they feel is beneath them. It’s really tough out there in the job market. Most people are spiritually and emotionally unprepared,and they also lack a practical specialization.

O u r C h i n e s e h i g h e r education doesn’t keep pace with the speed of the country’s development, and doesn’t provide the requisite skilled talent that is so hotly in demand in the country. Then at the same time, everybody wants to become a manager so they can join the whitecollar workforce and the middle class. But China’s place in the overall food chain determines the foundational characteristics of its industry and commerce, and there just aren’t enough managerial positions to go around for everybody.

Citing a simple example, for some of the current problems in agriculture in rural China,even a PhD student educated at an agricultural university may not necessarily find the right solutions.

So, anytime anyone seeking my advice about what subjects their children should study,I always recommend that he or she learn a professional skill, and that attending a junior college or a polytechnic would be the way to go. The tuition is not expensive and after you graduate, finding a job that puts bread on the table is not a problem. You will have the necessary skills to do the job and your income would be decent. Of course,this wouldn’t be for the hyperintelligent; those who have their hearts set on going to Tsinghua or Peking University should go.

Sometimes I think that people from the countryside attending university need to get their heads straight. Although it’s true that the Chinese idiom,“the dragon bears a dragon, the phoenix bears a phoenix, and a mouse’s son digs a nest” should be looked at with a critical eye,we should nevertheless examine its practical and sensible aspects.It doesn’t make any difference whether someone has been born into a family that has been wealthy for more than three generations. And no matter if it’s crony capitalism, American style capitalism, European style,or Japanese style capitalism, it’s all the same. If your forefathers weren’t loaded, then you need to start from the bottom rung of the ladder, and whether you get rich or not all depends on hard work and luck. If you can’t join the ranks of the wealthy,you’d best just resign yourself to being an average Joe. Study your specialization, raise a family,and do your best to protect your menial interests

我們的高等教育，沒有和社會對接，沒有培養出足夠的社會需要的實用技術人才，每個人都想去做白領，去做管理人員。可是中國的產業鏈地位決定了實業為基礎的特性，并沒有那么多的白領和管理層的職位提供給人們。

往簡單里說，現在很多農業農村的問題，就算是農業大學培養的博士，也未必有能力處理好。

所以，每當有人咨詢孩子應該去讀什么書的時候，我往往建議去學一技之長，讀個大專或者技校即可。花錢不多，出來找碗飯吃沒有問題，技術做得好的，收入也不會低。當然智力超一流的除外，愛讀清華讀清華，愛讀北大讀北大。

有時候想一想，農村的人讀書心態要放正。雖然“龍生龍，鳳生鳳，老鼠的兒子會打洞”這句話要批判，但也要看它現實合理的一面。至于人家富得過三代富不過三代，那是別人的事情。權貴資本主義也好，美式資本主義也好，歐式、日式資本主義也好，其實道理基本相通。如果父輩沒有積累，那就老老實實從底層做起，發得起來是努力和運氣的結晶；發不起來，就安安分分做一介普通小老百姓，學一技之長，生兒育女，捍衛自己的家庭小利益。

這是一個多元化的時代，有權貴資本強勢做主，也有草根經濟掙扎求生。富有富的煩惱，窮有窮的樂子。大人物風光無限，小人物各有精彩。像我老爹，什么城市都不想去，圖的就是農村生活的那份自得其樂和逍遙自在。◆（摘自《從寫字樓到玉米地》江蘇文藝出版社）

We live in an era of plurality,there’s the powerful central force of the crony’s and their capitalist system and there are those struggling for survival at the grassroots level. There are also the headaches of being wealthy,and the joys of being poor. The grandeur of being elite knows no bounds; while the brilliance of being a cipher yet resounds.I’m reminded of the story of my grandfather who never wanted to live in any big city; he just planned to spend his whole life in the countryside where he could live without a care in the world and enjoy all the simple pleasures of life, which to me sounds like a little slice of heaven.◆ (From From the Offices to the Cornfields,Jiangsu Art and Literature Press.Translation: Chase Coulson)