The Beijing News
May 6, 2008

Today's Beijing News reported the disappearance of a "university graduate village official" on its front page.

On April 26, Xiao Chenwei left his office in Huangtuliang village in suburban Beijing. Before he left, he cleaned up the office, and put the keys in a drawer. He took away his own laptop and his university degree. Four days later, he was reported missing, and by the time the newspaper went to print, he still couldn't be reached.

The "university graduate village official" is not just a village official who happens to be someone that have received the higher education. It has been used as a term by the media to specify a certain group of people in a recent government campaign.

On March 28, the government announced a policy to send over 100,000 university graduates to work in rural areas over the next 5 years. Though the official reason is to "promote the new socialist countryside, and cultivate a reserve of officials with low-level experience", the public immediately interpreted the move as an effort to ease the pressure that huge numbers of university graduates put on city job markets each year.

This approach may be traced back to 1968, when the government faced a similar problem and as many as 14 million young urban residents, so-called "educated youth", were sent to remote rural areas, voluntarily or not. As Chairman Mao said at the time, "It is necessary that the educated youth to go to the villages to be reeducated by the poor peasants."

Unlike the 1968 movement, this time the "university graduate village officials" are not to be reeducated by the villagers, they are supposed to lead them. Also unlike the "educated youth" of the late '60s, the new visitors to the countryside are motivated by economic reasons rather than idealism or loyalty to the Great Leader: the pay is relatively good and extra academic credits will be given if the university graduate village officials go on to take graduate school examinations or public service examinations.

Most importantly, graduate village officials who serve a full term of two or three years will be granted Beijing residence permits, which is the most tempting part to those who want to live in the capital city.

However, it seems that the reality of life as a graduate village official is not so encouraging. According to some reports, graduate village officials, young and inexperienced, are most likely be regarded as outsiders and kept away from the decision making process by the village administrations. "There are things that they don't want me to know. There are a lot of rules, but none of them are written on the paper" said Yu Wei, a "university graduate village official".

On the other hand, the villagers, who have been conditioned by traditional thinking, tend to hold unrealistic expectations for "officials sent from the top", thinking that the young leaders sent from the city will bring economic growth with them. Their high expectations soon turn to disappointment after they find instant riches are not possible.