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Text/Zhang Xueling
Source: Blackboard Insight (ID: heibandongcha)
Introduction
Not long ago, there was such a picture circulated on the Internet. Many netizens commented: true.
According to public data, the number of applicants for the national art test in 2020 is as high as 1.17 million, while in 2002, the number of applicants for the art test was only 32,000. Is its geometric multiple growth one of the reasons for the “transformation” of art candidates after graduation? Where did the art students who failed to “stay” end up?
01
70% of art students change careers upon graduation
In his second year of high school, Xue Chen set his first goal in life: to become a host, and chose an art test for this purpose.
“There is Beiguang in the north, and Zhechuan in the south” is a “famous saying” spread among art candidates, and it is also the school that every broadcasting student yearns for. The admission rates of the art examinations of the two colleges are both around 1%, which shows the degree of difficulty. Of course Xue Chen also applied for the exam, but of course the result was not satisfactory. Xue Chen said that he had been preparing for the exam in a small county town, and it was not until the real school exam that he realized that there are people beyond people, and there is a sky beyond the sky.
After spending four years in the university in a muddle, Xue Chen once felt that the four years of real professional knowledge learning were not even as many as the art test training classes in the first few months, and he felt that he had been eating his laurels. During this period, Xue Chen occasionally went to part-time shopping malls and small meeting hosts. But such a working frequency obviously cannot support the cost of living in first-tier cities. When he was about to graduate in his senior year, Xue Chen found another way out and tried to become a teacher of a children’s eloquence training class. It didn’t last long before he encountered the epidemic, and the training institution had a hard time.
In Xue Chen’s art school, almost all the students are admitted through the art test, but not many students can actually find the corresponding jobs. According to the 2019 graduate employment quality report released by the school, less than one-third of the fresh graduates are engaged in culture, sports and entertainment; among the rest of the industries, nearly 20% are in the wholesale and retail industry alone. In the data display, changing careers is indeed common.
Nearly 70% of students in the same major as Xue Chen have changed careers. Limited by their grades and professional ability, they can only do a little bit of work, such as delivery anchors, eloquence trainers, or art test agency teaching assistants. In the “host” column searched in the recruitment software, most of the positions to be recruited are anchors with goods, which may be considered professional counterparts, but it is still far from Xue Chen’s original dream.
“I have a good job, but others look down on me.” Needing money urgently and really wanting to stay in Beijing, I went into real estate sales with a slap in the face. After working for a few months, I still chose to be a delivery anchor. Xue Chen said that looking back on her experience of nearly a year, she also finds it funny, like a headless fly, not knowing what she wants.
After failing the art test and hitting a wall in employment, Xue Chen gradually realized that her abilities and talents were not enough for her to fulfill her dream of being a host in a first-tier city. It’s not the school’s problem, she joked. There are also examples of senior sisters joining CCTV and Beijing TV, but these are very few.
From the perspective of realizing her dream, Xue Chen is lucky. Not long after she became an anchor, her hometown radio station sent a recruitment message, and the recruiter wanted to be an anchor. The two are entangled. Between the urban atmosphere of the first-tier cities and the heartfelt work of the fourth-tier cities, Xue Chen chose the latter. Give up the hard work of more than a year ago.
“Perhaps for us ‘poor students majoring in art’, only by returning to a small town can there be a corresponding professional job market. After all, there are too many talents in big cities.”
02
art students not for art
Niu Yue, who is also an art student, decided to sign up just before the art exam.
The reason is also very simple, the art line is about 100 points lower than the undergraduate line. With no hope of undergraduates and no desire to enroll in a junior college, Niu Yue naturally thought of the art test. The last few in the high school class also went to the art test, including broadcasting, acting, directing, and so on. If you have the guts and no foundation, you naturally don’t expect to get a good undergraduate degree.
She enrolled through broadcasting, but she was tricked by the teacher to transfer to the acting major when she was a freshman. Whether it is broadcasting or acting, Niu Yue doesn’t love it very much, let alone have any feelings. “From the moment the art test was listed as an option, the undergraduate art major became a stepping stone for people like us, and it might not even matter what you study.” During this period, her family persuaded Niu Yue to take the postgraduate entrance examination, but she said, Knowing her own level, “being bad” is her university goal.
Under the “recommendation” of her classmates in the university, Niu Yue began to try part-time jobs such as killing DMs in scripts and escaping NPCs in secret rooms. The main purpose is to earn money while playing. She thinks that maybe in these industries, they are the professionals that are needed, not to mention that she has two professional learning experiences. If she is a little more open, she will be appreciated by her boss.
Screenshot of the university teacher meeting the students he had brought in the secret room/variety show “Annual Comedy Contest”
As far as the stores he has come into contact with, the vast majority of DMs and NPCs are part-time college students. After graduation, everyone went their separate ways. Some went back to their hometowns to take the public examination, some, like Niu Yue, planned to go abroad to study for graduate school, and some returned home to inherit the family business. In short, there were very few people left. The students who didn’t choose to go to Hengdian for a break may also have no confidence in themselves, so it’s better to be realistic. “In this era, especially in the performing arts industry, networking is still very important, and there is still a long way between graduation and entering the industry.”
In September 2021, the Ministry of Education issued the “Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Enrollment of Art Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities”, stating that it will gradually reverse the tendency of “emphasizing majors over culture” in the selection of art majors in some colleges and universities. Encourage school examination colleges to combine professional training requirements, strengthen the examination of candidates’ comprehensive cultural quality, and further improve the admission requirements for candidates’ cultural courses. At the same time, further standardize the provincial unified examination and college entrance examination. In the future, there may be fewer and fewer candidates who “curve into higher education” like Niu Yue.
“There are no small roles, only small actors. As long as you put your heart into it, there is a stage everywhere.” /Screenshot of the variety show “Annual Comedy Contest”
epilogue
The imbalance between supply and demand of art students has made it difficult to find a job. In fact, not only art students, almost all college students of majors have the situation of changing careers after graduation. Without a clear career plan, I didn’t realize “entering the wrong line” until I really wanted to enter the society. Under the social background of the depreciation of university degrees and huge employment pressure, millions of students choose to take the postgraduate entrance examination every year. Among them, the proportion of inter-professional postgraduate entrance examination candidates has increased significantly. There are more and more students who want to “start over”. Niu Yue said that the four-year artistic career is like a dream.
For ordinary people, the end of the world is security, cleaning, or sales?
* Xue Chen, Niu Yue, etc. are all pseudonyms in the text
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