Youth drawn to new media jobs

Most young Chinese would like a job in new media but they run into roadblocks from parents and society, a survey has found.

More than 38 percent of Chinese younger than 26 said their ideal job would be working as a professional electronic gamer, 27 percent wanted to work as a social media writer and 20 percent wanted to have a live-streaming show, according to the 2017 Blue Book of China’s Society, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Wednesday.

The report, based on answers from 9,000 respondents, including 2,143 younger than 26, also found a gap in generational attitudes. While 76 percent of young people said they could envisage such a career, only 18 percent of parents supported those ambitions, the report said.

Almost a third of young respondents were hesitant to tell others about their interests, worrying that they would be marginalized.

But the generation gap is narrowing, said Wang Xiaobing, chief research officer at the Tencent Center for Internet & Society, one of the three authors of the report. “Some parents, who objected to their children doing live-streaming at the very beginning, tended to change to support after they found their children could make good money from that,” he said.

China’s live-streaming market has an estimated value of about 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), according to internet research agency iResearch. It is not unusual to hear of online celebrities making far more than the average young worker.

While new occupations are emerging all the time, Chinese youth should be rational in choosing a new media career since “not everybody is suitable or has the ability” for that, Wang said.

One area, online gaming, appears to be more accepted, however.

In a September report, the Ministry of Education listed electronic competitive sports and management as one of 13 new majors for vocational colleges. The major will be launched in 2017.