[Video] Noodle-making over postgrad studies: How China’s graduates are hedging career risks

(Edited and refined by Bai Kelei, with the assistance of AI translation.)

With an offer from a well-known Hong Kong university in hand, 27-year-old Xiao Sun is torn between opening a beef noodle shop and pursuing further studies.

A Chinese-language teacher at a primary school in Lanzhou, she spent a Saturday afternoon in chef whites learning to make hand-pulled noodles at the Gansu Xinglong Lanzhou Beef Noodle Vocational Training School.

She told Lianhe Zaobao that although her job was relatively stable, the world was changing so quickly that she could still face reassignment or unemployment in future. That prompted her to learn noodle-making in her spare time. “With a skill under my belt, I won’t have to worry even if I lose my job one day,” she said.

Xiao Sun, who holds a bachelor’s degree, said she was less academically qualified than her peers. So, she recently applied for a master’s programme at a Hong Kong university and has been accepted, but has yet to decide whether to take up the offer.

Practical skills over paper qualifications

She said she had previously followed the conventional schooling path without a clear idea or plan for what she wanted to do. Now, she was beginning to realise that “skills are more important than qualifications”. She hopes to learn new skills in her spare time and might one day start a business overseas, like a noodle shop.

(English closed captions are available for the above video.)

The Gansu Xinglong Vocational Training School was among the first specialist institutions in China to offer training in making Lanzhou hand-pulled beef noodles. In a classroom on the school’s second floor, I saw about a dozen trainees repeatedly practising mixing and kneading dough and pulling noodles at their stainless-steel workstations.

A description of Lanzhou noodle varieties and their “personalities” was written on the blackboard: the finest noodles are gentle, the second-finest are easy-going, and the third-finest are passionate. At the back of the classroom hung a huge promotional banner: “Make ‘Lanzhou noodle-makers’ China’s most distinctive labour services brand.”

The slogan reflects the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS)’s recognition of “Lanzhou noodle-makers” in 2021 as a “most distinctive employment-generating labour services brand”. Publicly available information shows that, as of the end of last year, the Lanzhou beef noodle industry directly employed about 708,000 people and indirectly supported more than a million jobs.

Degree holders enter the kitchen

Liang Shunjian, the school’s founder and chairman of Jinweide Noodle Cultural Industry Group, told me that the demand for noodle-making professionals was strong, driving up their pay.

According to listings on the Chinese recruitment platform Liepin, Lanzhou beef noodle chain Majiyong offered noodle-makers at its Shanghai outlets about 7,000 RMB (US$1,048) to 8,000 RMB a month. A beef noodle shop in Xi’an’s high-tech zone advertised salaries of about 5,000 to 8,000 RMB.

Liang also observed a shift in trainees’ backgrounds. Noodle-makers used to come mostly from rural areas and had limited formal education. As attitudes towards skills and careers change, many trainees now hold bachelor’s or even master’s degrees.

Zhao Litao, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, said that to a certain extent, this reflected an increasingly pragmatic career outlook among Chinese youths, as well as a reassessment of academic qualifications and skills in China’s labour market.

Elevating blue-collar crafts

To adapt to changing labour market and industry needs, the Chinese authorities have continued to refine the country’s vocational education and skills training systems in recent years. Through policy guidance and showcase competitions, there is also greater emphasis on the value of skills and the importance of skilled workers.

Last July, MOHRSS released its seventh batch of newly recognised occupations and job categories. It added “hand-pulled beef-noodle maker” as a job category, alongside occupations such as “herbal tea processor” and “coffee processor”, bringing more skilled workers into the national occupational classification system.

At the WorldSkills Competition, which recently concluded in Shanghai, the Chinese delegation achieved its best results since it began taking part. In a congratulatory message, MOHRSS urged the team to uphold the spirit of hard work and craftsmanship, and contribute their skills to advancing Chinese modernisation in their respective jobs.

Zhao said the WorldSkills Competition conveyed the message that skills have significant professional value. Citing the recognition of “hand-pulled beef-noodle maker” as a job category, he said this goes beyond formally recognising an occupation. More importantly, it could pave the way for a system covering training, skills assessment, occupational standards and career development.

However, Zhao noted that the quality of vocational education in China still varied greatly, while social perceptions of achievement remained largely tied to academic qualifications. Whether China can establish more diverse ways of assessing talent, and whether vocational education can offer decent incomes, professional dignity and long-term career prospects, will be crucial to making vocational education and skills training genuinely attractive to young people.

Global appetite for Lanzhou flavour

One of Xiao Sun’s peers in the noodle-making class is Habib from Pakistan, who has a master’s degree in civil engineering from Lanzhou University of Technology. His motivation was a keen interest in the dish.

Habib told me that he had lived in China for nearly five years, visited many cities and tried many dishes, but had a particular fondness for Lanzhou beef noodles. He said, “For me, it’s not just a meal. It is part of Lanzhou’s culture and connects me to this city.”

Habib is one of many overseas trainees at the training school. Jinweide’s Liang said the school had attracted numerous overseas trainees since it started, about 80% of whom intended to start businesses abroad.

Public data from the Gansu Provincial Department of Commerce show that Lanzhou noodle shops now operate in more than 60 countries and regions, with over 600 outlets overseas. Brands such as Jinweide, Mazilu and Lanniuwang continue to expand abroad and are particularly popular in countries where halal food is more prevalent, such as Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

Alongside the overseas expansion of noodle brands, skills training and cultural experiences are also reaching international audiences. In 2023, Jinweide partnered with vocational institutions to establish the first noodle-making experiential learning workshop in New Zealand, the Bailie Workshop. Through educational activities, tastings, skills training and business incubation, it teaches local participants how to make noodles and run a business, while sharing the culture behind the dish. The model was subsequently replicated in countries including the UK, the US, Australia, Spain and Malaysia.

Jinweide’s Liang said a country’s rise was usually accompanied by the global popularity of its everyday foods, such as fried chicken, burgers and cola from the US, and sushi and ramen from Japan. He said, “The world needs to understand China, and one of the best windows into the country is its food. I don’t mean lavish meals, but the everyday food ordinary people eat.”

Liang also noted that taking Lanzhou noodles global would require moving beyond the traditional, small-scale approach to Chinese fast food. “For Chinese food businesses expanding overseas, everything from livestock rearing and crop cultivation to food production and outlet operations will need to be standardised and industrialised,” he added.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “学历贬值引就业焦虑 年轻人在拉面学校找寻技能价值”.

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