Popular film star takes public theatre job, sparking privilege debate and highlighting bleak outlook for China movie industry amid Covid-19
- Besides Jackson Yee, two other stars, Hu Xianxu and Luo Yizhou, were also hired by the National Theatre of China
- Initial understanding transformed into worries that their star power gave them an advantage over less famous applicants
Three young Chinese celebrities, headlined by Jackson Yee, are in a storm of controversy after the government-run National Theatre of China hired them, sparking calls for transparency amid concerns they were granted privileges and took sought-after public-sector jobs from less famous applicants.
Hu Xianxu and Luo Yizhou, two rising stars in their early-20s, were also recruited by the theatre, according to an announcement on the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security website last week meant to solicit public opinion about the hires until Friday.
The theatre announcement that they had got the jobs was met with concern, with people wondering if the trio were given privileges because of their star power and had taken spots that would represent a huge break in the careers of ordinary actors.
By joining the theatre, a national institute affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Yee and the others would receive a government bianzhi, which means a stable career with housing subsidies and other benefits.
They are particularly valuable perks right now in China as the country experiences an economic downturn.
As competition for those jobs becomes more fierce, other jobseekers are pushing for transparency of the celebrities’ hiring procedures and questioning whether they are “unemployed individuals”, as the theatre required in its recruitment announcement.
“Film stars have the right to apply for government jobs. But the question is whether they are qualified candidates and if they were properly auditioned and interviewed?” one Weibo user said.
The theatre has not responded to public concerns, and phone calls from the South China Morning Post to the number it left for public input went unanswered on Tuesday.
It’s not rare for celebrities to be hired by government-sponsored organisations. Last year, popular actress Guan Xiaotong and actor Zhang Yixing joined the same theatre. In 2020, another actor, Liu Haoran, was admitted into the China Coal Mine Art Troupe.
Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of Communist Party tabloid Global Times, wrote in a commentary on Tuesday that frequent lay-offs, and pay cuts in the private sector over the past couple of years, have made jobs in the public sector increasingly attractive.
“Due to these factors, people have seen Yee and the others’ joining the theatre as taking up ordinary people’s much-desired jobs via unfair methods,” he said.
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China’s economy is in the midst of a widespread economic slowdown. The World Bank slashed its 2022 growth forecast for China from 5.1 per cent in December 2021 to 4.3 per cent in June.
The film and cinema industry has been hit particularly hard by Covid-19 pandemic prevention measures, such as the forced closure of cinemas in Shanghai from March 10 until July 8 as the city imposed strict measures to fight its worst outbreak during the pandemic.
China’s total box office revenue fell by about 38 per cent in the first half of this year from 2021 to 17 billion yuan (US$2.52 billion), according to online ticketing provider Maoyan.
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The industry has also been under tighter scrutiny as Beijing cracked down on a zealous fandom culture as well as celebrities who broke the law and violated political sensitivities. The government also imposed a salary cap on entertainers.
It is in this atmosphere that mega-celebrities like Yee are finding the stability of government jobs to be an attractive opportunity, and the initial reaction to the announcement in China was one of “understanding” before becoming more critical over the weekend.
Yee shot to fame as a member of the boy band TFBoys and became one of China’s most famous young actors with starring roles in films and TV series, including the nationalistic blockbuster The Battle at Lake Changjin.
