Chinese civil servant’s complaint about life in remote desert posting stirs debate about public service versus personal freedom
- The woman, who had recently graduated with a degree in literature, said she was sent to a ‘backward’ area of the Gobi and felt ‘trapped’
A Chinese literature graduate’s complaints about her civil service job in a remote area in the Gobi desert has triggered a debate about the trade-offs between public duty and individual freedom.
Although there are many ancient Chinese poems about the desert’s beautiful landscape, the young woman’s account of the prosaic reality of life in a “a backward small county” has generated some sympathy along with fierce criticisms of her “arrogance” and “disrespect”.
The young woman, identified only by her surname Gu, shared her thoughts about her posting in Jiayuguan in Gansu province on the social media platform of Wuhan University, where she had studied German literature to master’s degree level.
In the now-deleted post Gu, who is believed to be in her mid-twenties, complained about feeling “trapped” in the industrial city dominated by iron and steel working, and worried that she had “sold her freedom and soul”.
She said she chose to accept the job last year despite having other job offers because she was being pressured by her parents and felt it offered the best chance of job security.
“Back then, I was exhausted every day, dealing with relatives, handling dozens of calls and long voice messages from my mum,” she said. “As time went on, it [the persuasion] escalated into a mix of sarcasm and hysteria.”