'Ant tribe' grads in Beijing fight their way up

Some others, like Li Renwei, who spends 1,000 yuan (US$162) each month renting a single-bedroom flat in which she lives with her husband and toddler son, choose to live as members of the "ant tribe" because they find it "frightening" to share an apartment with others. With Li Renwei's budget, she would have to share a flat with others if she wanted to live closer to the downtown area.

Though renting a place in Beisicun helps alleviate financial problems for young people, poor mobile phone connectivity, frequent power outages, bad environmental conditions, and other factors, bring "endless" troubles that "ant tribe" people like Wang and Li simply have to put up with.

A 2013 research study showed that "ant tribe" people on average rent 6.4 square meters of floor space each, enough to accommodate one single bed, a table and a chair, and are subjected to a monthly rent of 518 yuan (US$84). The same research found that 43.9 percent of "ant tribe" graduates have a bachelor's degree, 40.5 percent have a junior college diploma, and 7.4 percent have a master's degree.

However, a similar survey from 2009, when the "ant tribe" concept was first put forward, found that those who have a bachelor's or a master's degree accounted for 31.9 percent and 1.6 percent of the "ant tribe", respectively, signalling that higher education has not necessarily changed the well-being of new college graduates.

China's mega-cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, are beginning to be more mindful of their size. In "right-sizing" campaigns, the cities' regulators are attempting to squeeze out the extra labor force in lower-end industries while encouraging people with higher education – like most "ant tribe" people in Beisicun Village – to stay.

Better resources and more opportunities are what attract university graduates to stay in big cities. Most "ant tribe" people maintained that they "wouldn't want to come to Beijing if their hometowns had everything."

The only bright side of living in the "ant tribe" is that young people can thrive on their "primitive accumulation" with comparably lower costs, before setting out for higher pursuits in their careers.

But before they can set off on their dream life, the "ant tribe" people of Beisicun have a more pressing concern. Word has it that Beisicun will be relocated soon, as the local government wants to rectify the disorderly situation in that area. While Liu Fengchun, the village head, believes that relocation will prevent safety problems, tenants living here have started looking for new places to dwell.