In Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, a tourist attraction recruited part-time “wild men” at a daily rate of 300 yuan (Chinese currency), with more than two thousand people applying, but only 10 were eventually hired.
The recruitment video of Dream Kingdom, a farm-based agricultural entertainment venue in Qinhuangdao, has been circulating on Chinese social media recently. The video shows the attraction recruiting college students to work as “wild men” part-time during the summer, offering 300 yuan per day including meals and accommodation.
On August 6th, Mr. Ma, in charge of the “wild men” project at the attraction, told Jiemu News that the project was initiated on July 5th. The recruitment plan was announced in late June, aiming to recruit a total of 10 people. Since it is a temporary project mainly for the peak summer tourism season, college students were hired part-time to work from 9:30 AM to 8:30 PM with three break times in between.
Mr. Ma said, “After the part-time recruitment plan was announced, over 2,000 people applied.” Eventually, 10 college student actors were selected.
It is reported that the “wild men” at the attraction mainly engage in performance activities such as imitating wild calls, making fire from wood, tree climbing, roasting sweet potatoes, living in “caves” made of sticks, and dancing around a bonfire, among more than ten activities.
Due to the economic downturn leading to a decrease in tourists, many attractions in China are introducing roles like “wild men” or animal impersonators to attract visitors.
In June this year, Shennongjia Scenic Area in Hubei Province issued a recruitment notice for “Shennongjia wild men” with a daily wage of 500 yuan. The job involves “dressing as a wild man and parading in the scenic area,” “must not speak in front of visitors but can only make ‘grunting’ sounds, can accept feeding,” “prefers raw food,” and the plan aimed to recruit 16 people, but nearly ten thousand applied.
Previously, the Guanshanhu Scenic Area in Benxi, Liaoning Province, recruited “wild men actors” for a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, while the Taihang Wuzhi Mountain Scenic Area in Handan, Hebei Province, recruited performers to portray “Sun Wukong” for a monthly salary of 6000 yuan, with the main task of “eating under a mountain.”
In response, Ma Jing, a tourism industry observer in Hubei, analyzed from the industry perspective, “Tourists see funny wild men performances, but what we see is the tangible anxiety of local governments.”
She pointed out that in the context of the tightening of the central government’s finances and slowing infrastructure investment, many regions in central and western China can only rely on the cultural and tourism industry to sustain themselves. “But these places mostly lack core resources and service capabilities, so they can only rely on short video trends and low-cost visual spectacles to attract attention, which is undoubtedly a ridiculous form of self-rescue.”