Do grunt work
China's Spring Festival holiday marks the country's biggest annual migration. Millions of people working in larger cities board trains, planes and buses to return home for long-delayed reunions with family. On a recent cross-country train from South China's Guangzhou to Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in the far northeast, a Newschina reporter interviewed a man who said he left home seven years ago for work in a major city. His son was only three at the time. When asked why, he said he was forced to choose between a well-paying job and the happiness of being near his family. “I can't carry bricks if my hands are full carrying my son,” he said. “Bricks” here, refers to a job. It comes from the new Chinese phrase “banzhuan” which literally means “moving bricks.” The term originally referred to construction work, but now is more frequently used to describe “hard, low-level work” for a company. The term first caught on among social media users as a form of self-deprecation, comparing their hard, low-level jobs to “carrying bricks” on a con- struction site. The word spread among low-level employees of all kinds to express a surrender of their dreams to the harsh reality of working to survive. For example, the interviewed passenger felt if he gave up banzhuan in the big city, he would have to work an even lower-paying job at home and not provide enough for his family. As China's income gap widens, more and more people feel their dreams are further out of reach. “Wake up, it's time to banzhuan,” is a phrase some use to pour cold water on someone's dreams that they find unrealistic.