公務員職業:看上去很美

Judging from his pile of train tickets, Xie Cheng must travel a lot. So it’s odd that the 24-year-old history major knows nothing about the local attractions or food in the cities he’s visited – Qingdao, Lanzhou, Changchun, Yichang, Changzhou, Shijiazhuang, to name a few.
從謝成（音譯）手中厚厚的火車票票根來看，他一定去過好多地方。但奇怪的是，這名24歲的歷史專業畢業生竟對自己所到城市的風光及美食一無所知，這些城市包括青島、蘭州、長春、宜昌、常州、石家莊等等，不一而足。

Xie is one of many young Chinese graduates who have been caught in the civil service mania of recent years, hoping that their toil in taking the exams will land them a stable career with a decent income and a respectful social status.
近年來，中國許多年輕的大學畢業生都投身“公務員熱潮”之中，希望自己不辭辛苦地一次次參加國考，最終能換來一個收入可觀、受人尊敬的“鐵飯碗”。謝成就是其中的一員。

“I have taken the national entrance exam for the central government’s civil service three times, and about a dozen times for civil service jobs in other provinces and cities,” said Xie.
“我先後參加了三次國家公務員考試以及十幾次各省市的地方公務員考試。” 謝成說。

For Xie, the civil service paints a promising future. “It would mean a change of fate,” said Xie. “By becoming a civil servant, an apartment, cars and a happy family would be within my reach.”
對於謝成來說，公務員描繪了大好的前途。他表示：“這可能意味着一次命運的轉折。如果成爲一名公務員，房子、車子及美滿家庭將指日可待。”In order to realize one’s dream, one has to be willing to fight for it. According to the State Administration of Civil Service, the national exam for civil servant admission to central government agencies hit a new record in 2012, with 109 positions receiving more than 1,000 applications each.
爲實現夢想，必須爲之拼搏。國家公務員局表示，2012年中央機關及其直屬機構國家公務員考試創造了一個新紀錄，109個招錄職位的報名比例超過1000:1。

Liu Manping, an economist at a Beijing-based think tank, thinks the phenomenon reflects people’s sense of insecurity in a fluctuating market and economy.
北京某諮詢研究機構的經濟學家劉滿平認爲，“公務員熱”現象反映出，由於市場環境與經濟環境的波動，人們缺乏安全感。

“More fierce social competition tends to push people to play safe,” said Liu. “With high housing prices and the rising cost of medication, some of the welfare benefits extended to civil servants can cure these headaches.”
劉滿平表示：“日益激烈的社會競爭，往往會促使人們尋求安穩。房價與醫療支出不斷攀升，而公務員的福利待遇可以解決這些棘手難題。”

However, according to Zhu Lijia, from the Chinese Academy of Governance, there has been a trend of phasing out public servants’ privileges in medication and housing.
但來自國家行政學院的竹立家則表示，政府已有意逐步取消公務員在醫療及住房方面所享有的特權。

A report by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security indicates that by 2012, 24 out of 31 provinces and municipalities reformed medication benefits for civil servants.
人力資源和社會保障部發布的一份報告顯示，截止到2012年，全國31個省、直轄市、自治區中，已有24個地區實行了公務員醫療保險制度的改革。

“The inequality embodied in the traditional medication benefit has to be tackled,” said Zhu. “Social welfare systems must cover everyone indiscriminately.”
竹立家說：“過去公費醫療中所體現出的不公性必須解決，社會福利制度必須公平地覆蓋所有人。”

As for Xie: Earlier this year he finally managed to become a quality inspector in a small city in Shanxi province. But his daily routine is far from the ideal picture he had in mind.
今年年初，謝成最終如願以償，成爲山西一座小城市的質量檢驗員。但日常工作與他理想中的設想相差甚遠。

“The workload is huge and we work late into the night on most days,” said Xie. “The salary just reaches the local average, so I’m a bit disillusioned. But at least I don’t need to worry about losing my job for a while.”
謝成說：“工作量很大，大多數時間我們都會加班到晚上。工資剛剛達到本地的平均水平，所以我有點兒理想幻滅的感覺。但至少在一段時間內，我不用擔心自己會失業了。”