Down, but hardly out

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-30 09:26

 

"People like me are not losers...just haven't susseeded yet." says Deng Kun.

Shanxi province native Deng Kun spent the last Spring Festival alone in Beijing.

"I'm ashamed to go home, because I have been away for two years but have achieved nothing," Deng tells China Daily during a telephone interview.

The festival's eve was especially sorrowful for him.

He says his heart was "shattered to pieces" by the booming of festive fireworks outside as he feasted on dumplings and swilled Erguotou liquor by himself in an empty building at Tangjialing village, in which he shared a room with several others.

He followed his girlfriend to Beijing in 2007 after graduating from a university in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.

The past two years have been a crazy roller coaster ride. He moved to and from Tangjialing twice. His on-again-off-again relationship has been volatile. He failed the post-graduate exams, tried in vain to start his own business and was cheated in an illegal pyramid scheme.

He has worked three jobs but never held one down for more than half a year.

And he never earned more than 2,000 yuan a month.

He is still looking for a job in Beijing and hopes to be financially independant as soon as possible.

He watched classmates and friends with social connections land lucrative jobs, while those with rich parents became entrepreneurs.

"Life is unfair, but we have to accept it," Deng says, stoically.

"I have to start from scratch. But people like me are not losers; we just haven't succeeded yet."