China Job Hunter TV Show Takes Mean Spiritedness To New Level

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How do you say you’re a complete idiot and shouldn’t be allowed to hold a job in Mandarin?

Guo Jie, a 32-year-old Shaanxi, China job seeker spent the last 10 years studying in France. Out of his element and all alone, Guo took off on an adventure many dream about, but few go through with it. Yet, he couldn’t take the real life mean spiritedness of a Chinese reality TV show where young people vie for a job. Guo passed out on the Apprentice style show “Only You” in an episode earlier this month after facing a firing line of stern questioning by one host who makes Simon Cowell and Donald Trump look like girl scouts.

Show host Zhang Shaogang didn’t go to Guo’s aid when he conked out. Instead, he asked him if he was faking it following charges that Guo’s French degree, a BAC+5 certificate in international trade, was basically for pansies.

Although “Only You” is supposed to help job seekers, the program takes Anglo-American ugly to a new level and, according to an English language Chinese news show called “China Take” on the Blue Ocean Network airing on June 5. The show host’s behavior has sparked criticism on microblogging sites like Weibo and QQ for the general nastiness the 12 interviewers subject the contestants.

Liu Lili, a 24-year-old gamer on the show had her job interview get outright confrontational in one episode in January. Show hosts actually challenged her and others to a duel. How 12th century is that? Kai-fu Lee, the former top executive at Google China, thinks the show is over-the-top and started an online campaign calling for viewers to boycott the program. So far, his campaign caught the attention of over 410, 000 socially networked Chinese last week, with 94.4 percent supporting the boycott, “China Take” reported.

Even if the job interviewers think the candidate is not good enough, neither the host nor the interviewer is entitled to humiliate him or her, Lee said.

What a crybaby!

A widely-circulated open letter, signed off on by a group of overseas students, urged China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to “take drastic measures” against the program. The letter said there was no need for the show hosts to “humiliate job candidates” and said that the show is just being bombastic to spur higher ratings.

Welcome, China, to the media content bubble.

It is unlikely the show will be cancelled. Many are asking for the show producers to apologize and say the show does not reflect the reality of job hunting in China. Yes, Apprentice and American Idol do a much better job with reality.