In China, the job market is saturated and academic qualifications are severely devalued. Many highly educated individuals have to settle for jobs that are beneath their qualifications. A post-90s genetic master’s graduate, Hu Yulei, took on a position at the Wuhan Zoo as a “hippopotamus poop scooper,” where he revealed that he shovels 500 pounds of feces daily and takes two showers. This news has sparked discussions.
According to the mainland media Nine Pass News on September 25th, Hu Yulei, born in 1997, studied animal science for his undergraduate degree and pursued a master’s in genetic breeding and reproduction. After graduation, he joined the Wuhan Zoo as a dedicated conservationist for the hippos in the African area, and he has been in this position for three years.
Hu Yulei’s main responsibilities include the care of two hippos, cleaning their enclosures, daily observation, and patrolling the zoo.
Every morning at 8 a.m., he puts on his work clothes and uses a high-pressure water gun to clean the hippo enclosures, a process that takes at least two hours.
During the summer, the two hippos consume six bundles of hay per day, each weighing about 30 pounds, along with pellets, carrots, and even 20 pounds of watermelon in the hottest months. With a substantial diet comes a remarkable amount of waste, sometimes reaching around 500 pounds.
It’s inevitable to get a bit smelly during the cleaning process, so he showers twice a day. Hu Yulei confessed that when he was young and watched “Animal World,” he thought working at a zoo meant playing with cute animals every day. But after starting the job, he realized it meant dealing with hundreds of pounds of feces on a daily basis.
In response to the criticism of being overqualified for his job, Hu Yulei stated that he records data on the animals’ diet, waste, and behavior daily, which is crucial for long-term health management. The two hippos in the zoo are around 40 years old on average, considered the “senior staff,” with gentle temperaments, and their main task is to live out their retirement peacefully.
According to the data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics on September 17, in August, the unemployment rate for young urban residents (excluding students aged 16 to 24) rose to 18.9%, an increase of 1 percentage point from July, marking the highest figure this year. This is still believed to be an understated and embellished figure by the official statistics.
In recent years, it’s become common to see highly educated Chinese doctoral and master’s degree holders working as grassroots urban management officers or auxiliary police. It’s also not unusual to find university students working as food delivery drivers. Many videos shared online depict Chinese college graduates expressing their struggles in finding employment.
In mainland China, a new trend of “useless education discourse” is emerging. On September 1, a third-grade student in Jinghai District of Tianjin broke down in tears while doing homework. The young boy cried out, “What’s the point of living? When I grow up, I’ll just be a rich person’s worker, right?” His mother reassured him, saying that working hard would lead to a good job, but the boy criticized her statement as mere “imagination” and not a reflection of reality.
The video quickly went viral, garnering over 145,000 likes from netizens. Some expressed admiration for the boy, saying he was “more enlightened than a 40-year-old.”