The controversy surrounding Chinese actor Jackson Yee’s effort to join the National Theater of China (NTC) will soon be forgotten with new gossip popping up to grab people’s attention, but the hurt feelings will not be easily mended, and the cruel difficulty of trying to excel in an over competitive society as is being faced by ordinary folks will not go away.
Yee, having appeared in such box office hits as “The Battle at Lake Changjin” and “Better Days,” is one of the most prominent young actors in China today. A singer-dancer and a member of the teen idol group TFBoys, he recently graduated from the Central Academy of Drama (CAD) in Beijing, and applied for a job with the NTC.
After heated online debate on whether he had used his influence to get the job and therefore made it unfair for other candidates, Yee yesterday said on his Weibo (Chinese equivalent to Twitter) account that he would give up the job, despite an official statement from the potential employer a day earlier denying any irregularities in the process of hiring.
In his statement, Yee explained that he participated in all three rounds of exams respectively on April 14, 25 and May 2 as required by the NTC, although the final round was held online due to restrictive travel measures imposed by the Beijing authorities in order to fight against a COVID flare-up.
The young actor also said that as a graduate of the CAD, it is quite natural to harbor the dream of joining the NTC, the nation’s top theater, where he can work with and learn from established actors.
It’s also understandable why the NTC was more than willing to hire Yee. In recent years quite a proportion of young Chinese audiences have cultivated an appetite for stage drama, but many others have bought tickets just to see and support their idols. “A Dream Like a Dream,” an eight-hour-long stage drama premiered in 2013 and split into two parts in its performance, had repeatedly seen its tickets sold out very quickly on its tours around China, thanks to the huge appeal of their leading actors, first Hu Ge and then Xiao Zhan. A star-studded cast is almost a guarantee for a winning box office hit for the production companies. The NTC, with a large part of its funding from the Central Government, still hopes to be able to make a profit from box office sales.
When news first came in early July that Yee was among the NTC's new recruits, he received goodwill wishes and congrats from his fans. But the wind turned shortly afterwards with people questioning his legitimacy in getting the job. Then, an essay from China Newsweek saying those questioning Yee were just having feelings of sour grapes drew the ire of more people, many of whom mocked them as “small-town swots.” The term refers to those who grew up in small towns with ordinary backgrounds, have sweated through gaokao (the national college entrance exams) to get into fairly prestigious universities, and strive to find a secure job in big cities and move up the social ladder.
“These small-town swots spend every day taking simulated tests and still cannot secure a job within the ‘system’ (government departments or government-funded agencies). They certainly feel robbed when a celebrity, with all the money he could earn and huge fame he enjoys, decided to compete against them for a job with a government-funded agency, even though the celebrity is better qualified for the job than themselves,” the essay in China Newsweek wrote.
In fact, it’s much more difficult to have a successful career in showbiz than to find a job within the “system.” It takes years of hard work, all-in support from their family, natural talent as well as good luck for someone to make it in showbiz. Behind every success story are thousands who have put in endless time, money and energy but still fail to be seen by the public. Unlike Annabel Yao, the younger daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Yee is from a not so wealthy family in Hunan Province. It's almost fair to say that he has earned what he owns today with unremitting effort and thanks to good luck.
The China Newsweek essay is telling the truth to some extent; only that truth is very hurtful for many.
Three years into the COVID pandemic, it’s a tough environment for everyone in the country, particularly the young.
Some 10.76 million graduated from college this July and 4.57 million have chosen to sit through the exams for graduate programs. About 20% will successfully get enrolled by graduate programs, leaving 3.4 million with the difficult decision of either trying to find a job at this late time or preparing to take the exams again next year. The chance of getting a civil service job is even scarcer.
Perhaps instead of blaming those who cannot have the grapes and then call the fruit sour, it’s more important that we think outside the box, create more jobs and give better hope to the young.
(The author is a Features Department editor of Shenzhen Daily.)