Ant Tribe
蚁族 (yǐzú)
Related buzz words:
College graduate desert big cities

"蚁", ma, is "ant"; “族”, zu, means "tribe". "蚁族" is used to describe young Chinese college graduates who are too poor to either buy a house or rent a decent apartment, and thus have to share a tiny room with their peers, like ants in a colony.

With the ongoing financial crisis, it is getting increasingly difficult for college graduates to find a good job in today's China. Salaries offered by private companies remain low; those who are employed by state-owned enterprises are also unable to afford a house despite their relatively high income.

But that is far from the whole picture. The core of the problem is that the growth rate of housing prices in China is much faster than the income growth rate of ordinary people. Even if they are well paid, people are getting poorer everyday in the face of surging housing prices as well as high rent payments.

The emergence of inflation has caused the situation to deteriorate. It has lifted living expenses in big cities, putting great pressure on college graduates and forcing them to desert big cities.

Of course, many people may claim that an ant-like lifestyle is not that bad and choosing to live in medium-sized or small cities is no worse than living in their big city counterparts. We admit, some prefer a simple lifestyle with clean air and less pressure rather than the stress of life in big cities, but the question is whether those college students are deserting big cities out of their own free will.

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