Want to work as a panda keeper or study kung fu at Shaolin? This Chinese reality show will give you the chance
Programme will select eight foreigners and film their experiences as they perform a number of distinctively Chinese roles
Around 500 foreigners are being given the chance to compete for eight distinctively Chinese jobs – including panda keeper and Shaolin kung fu apprentice – in a reality show, state media has reported.
The online programme, I’m in China, is supported by the Chinese government and aims to promote the culture and history of the country.
The chance to spend a day taking care of pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of the Giant Panda Breeding Centre in the southwest of the country attracted the largest number of applicants after an advert was posted on the professional networking website LinkedIn on June 20, China Daily reported on Thursday.
Applicants were expected to able to communicate in Chinese and to be curious about Chinese culture, representatives from the show were quoted as saying.
Zoologists or people with experience caring for animals will be given priority for the panda-keeping job.
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Other jobs include kung fu apprentice at the renowned Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, a high-speed train maintenance worker in Wuhan and a beef noodle chef in Lanzhou, a northwestern city which is celebrated for its version of the dish.
There will also be opportunities to have a stint as an environmental protection worker in the scenic Zhangjiajie mountains in Hunan province, as a truck driver on the Tibet-Qinghai highway and as the acting dean of Yuelu Academy – a 10th century seat of learning.
The final “job” will see the participant spending a day as a cashless consumer in China’s increasingly cashless society by relying on e-payment systems to get by.
Producers are currently sifting through the applications and the eight winners will be filmed spending a day on the job with their Chinese counterparts.
The episodes will be available via the social network Weibo later this year.
