New professions created with social changes in China

China's fundamental social changes have brought into being a variety of new professions people find it difficult to describe using traditional, unimaginative terms such as "journalist", "driver", or "teacher".

The latest version of the Profession Dictionary of the People's Republic of China incorporates some 1,800 professions with 330 being clearly defined and prescribed. However, more novel jobs, many of which were completely unheard of in the past, keep emerging as the country witnesses fundamental social changes and its people become more attentive to minute personal needs.

Shanghai municipal government recently announced that official descriptions of 65 new professions would be released by the end of this year, and local residents were encouraged to report appearance of new vocations.

But avant-garde jobs are not just the privilege of big cities and developed coastal regions. In Harbin in northeast China's heavily industrial Heilongjiang Province, the profession of marriage analyst has attracted increasing attention among locals.

When Zhang Liying started to provide guidance on marriage several years ago, most of her clients asked for simple measures to untie their marital knots, the sooner the better.

"Now, they want suggestions on how to avoid divorce and many of them immediately came for help far ahead of a real marriage breakup," said Zhang, emphasizing an increasing crisis-awareness among her expanding clientele.

"Our job is not to make decisions in clients' shoes but help them to make wiser decisions on their own," said Zhang.

China's fast-developing telecommunication industry has also become a hot job-generator.

There are nearly 200 million mobile phone users in China, more than 30 percent of whom say text and image mobile phone messages are "indispensable" parts of their lives, according to a Chinese survey.

In China, sending a text message costs 0.15 yuan (0.02 US dollar) and a maximum of one yuan (0.12 US dollar) per image message. Prices could be further slashed on numerous discounts launched by telecommunication firms to attract users.

Not only China's telecommunication companies are taking the advantage of the above dependence on mobile phone messages, but also people good at composing the messages, now frequently and extensively spread as a special way of saying "hello" among friends.

Popular messages are usually smartly-worded jokes, puns and greetings as well as hit images and pleasant ringing sounds of cellular phones.

Shen Qiang, a full-time mobile phone message writer in Yancheng City of east China's Jiangsu Province, now earns some 6,000 yuan (approximately 730 US dollars) monthly by composing three-dimensional messages for a major Chinese portal.

Shen only earned 1,000 yuan (120 dollars) per month when he first adopted the job part-time last year. As the message business developed and he became more experienced in composition, Shen's salary quickly skyrocketed to the current level, which prompted him to design messages full time.

A number of companies specializing in composing mobile phone messages are booming, attracting more writers into the business. Other composers, like Shen, free-lance at websites, where users can download messages after making payments online.

In a recent recruitment program aired by China Central Television (CCTV), an employing website looked for designers of downloadable mobile phone sounds and generated much competition among applicants.

More down-to-earth jobs have also appeared, such as substitute drivers, who help clients to drive cars in special situations.

Wu Junqiang, a substitute driver from Beijing, enjoys sending cars and their drunken owners back home. "Safety concern is only one of the reasons why a client seeks for our services," said Wu, who became a substitute driver in May.

Now, the company Wu serves can entertain five to six orders per night, charging 80 to 100 yuan (1 to 12 dollars) per ride.

Although satisfied with the profession, Wu and his colleagues are occasionally frustrated with some clients' bad manners and randomly changing requests for the services.

"Things will improve as the profession becomes more widely known and accepted," said Wu.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS) announced the second batch of ten new professions and provided detailed description of the jobs on Dec. 2

in Shanghai. The new vocations are business designers, exhibition designers, digital video producers, scenery designers, mold designers, architecture model designers, furniture designers, customer service managers, pet care-takers and animated-image designers.

So far, 19 new professions have gained official recognition. Government administrations said they will regularize the announcement of new professions.

The appearance of numerous new professions reflects the fact that China's industrial structure is becoming more service-oriented, said Zhang Xiaojian, Vice MOLSS Minister.

Concurrent with the emergence of new professions is the disappearance of old ones such as pan-repairer. China now has 1,857 professions, decreasing by 3,000 over the past five years.

However, specialists helping diners to order at restaurants, private detectives, meteorological agents, professional apologizers and thanks-deliverers are mushrooming in various Chinese localities.

Now, government administrations are studying professions such as lumber protector, toy designer and information security administrator, and preparing to recognize them.

"Only an internally dynamic society can breed so many new professions," said Vice Cultural Minister Zhou Heping.

Source: Xinhua