Qin Yuefei, a Yale Graduate Working as a Village Official

By Yang Mei

Qin Yuefei, a Yale Graduate Working as a Village Official

By Yang Mei

Service

W hen introducing himself, Qin Yuefei is always mentioning two important things in his life—that is, in 2010, he completed his undergraduate courses in Yale University, and in the next year, he worked as a village official in the rural area of Hunan Province. It may occur to some people that there was once a news story on a “Yale-graduate village official” who was a role model of Chinese youth. Now, he is 30.

Five or six years ago, among his group of Chinese graduates from Yale University, several of them had settled down in Beijing and found a job either in an investment organization or a consulting firm. Qin Yuefei didn’t want to take up a nine-to-five job and live for nothing as a white-collar worker. Instead, he wanted to make a contribution to changing people’s life. Majoring in political science and economics, he believed that he could definitely find his role in the field of public service in China.

Initially, Qin Yuefei launched a non-profit organization called Sunshine Book House with some friends that had graduated from Harvard University, so as to develop the rural education in Gansu Province. Meanwhile, he heard of an organizational program—that is, working as a village official in response to the country’s “Collegegraduate Village Official” policy.Qin Yuefei considered it an ideal opportunity to fulfil his ambition,which could provide him with an optimistic outlook. Although many people just saw the poor rural conditions and low salary of the job,in Qin Yuefei’s eyes, compared with his great vision, those negative aspects were negligible. Thus, he signed up for it.

Qin Yuefei’s mother attached great importance to his education, and Qin Yuefei began to learn English when he was only two. According to the plot of a traditional success story, after he was granted a full scholarship from Yale University and got a job offer at Wall Street after graduation, the story should have come to a good end. Yet,in Qin Yuefei’s mind, coming back to one’s birthplace and helping a local community were the real exciting choice.

In 2011, he was selected as the assistant director to work at Hejiashan Village of Hejia County in Hengshan,Hunan Province, with a term of three years and the monthly pay of RMB 1450 yuan, but the post was not included in the staffing quotas of the national civil servants and without any social insurance.

On the next morning he took office,Qin Yuefei got up and took a bath as usual, which puzzled his colleagues in the township government—how come this guy took a bath in the morning?Qin Yuefei had no idea of the usual practice of a villager, neither did he understand the local Hengshan dialect. Later, he changed his habit of taking a bath in the morning, and he started to wear his letter-printed T-shirt inside out and changed his short boots out for a pair of rubbersoled “l(fā)iberation shoes.”

服 務(wù)

秦玥飛介紹自己時總說兩件事：2010年從耶魯大學(xué)本科畢業(yè)，2011年到湖南農(nóng)村當大學(xué)生村官。有的人會想起來，以前新聞是報道過一個“耶魯村官”，中國的榜樣青年。如今，他30歲了。

五六年前，他們這撥中國學(xué)生從耶魯畢業(yè)，好幾個人陸續(xù)到北京落腳工作，進了投資機構(gòu)或咨詢公司。秦玥飛不想過朝九晚五、庸庸碌碌的白領(lǐng)生活。他希望能做出改變?nèi)藗兩畹呢暙I。他本科修的是政治學(xué)和經(jīng)濟學(xué)兩個專業(yè)，他相信在中國的公共服務(wù)領(lǐng)域里，總能找到一個屬于他的位置。

秦玥飛一面跟哈佛的朋友發(fā)起一個叫“陽光書屋”的公益組織，在甘肅農(nóng)村發(fā)展教育，一面又聽說了另一種有組織性的做法：響應(yīng)國家的“大學(xué)生村官”政策，去農(nóng)村做村官。秦玥飛覺得這個崗位完全符合他的理想，也有上升前景。很多人只看到農(nóng)村條件差、村官工資低，他覺得這些跟一個更遠大的愿景相比都沒什么。他報了名。

秦玥飛的媽媽重視教育，秦玥飛兩歲就讓他開始學(xué)英語。按一套傳統(tǒng)的成功故事，秦玥飛在高中拿到耶魯全額獎學(xué)金，大學(xué)畢業(yè)后得到一份華爾街上的工作，故事就到頭了。但秦玥飛說，能再回到出生之地，幫助一個群體，那才是激勵人心的結(jié)局。

2011年他被選派去湖南衡山賀家鄉(xiāng)賀家山村做村主任助理，任期3年，月薪1450元，沒有公務(wù)員編制，沒有社會保險。

上任第二天一早，秦玥飛起來洗了澡。鄉(xiāng)政府的人都稀奇起來，怎么早上洗澡？他不了解農(nóng)村，又聽不懂衡山話。后來，他不在早上洗澡了，把有英文印花的T恤里翻外地穿了，短靴也換成解放鞋。

他在村里一會給人搭手提個籃子，一會又幫人修熱水器，99%的工夫都在做“好人好事”。

難 處

到賀家山村兩個月后，秦玥飛告訴鄉(xiāng)黨委副書記陳希軍，他可以在外面找企業(yè)籌款，看村里有什么需要建的。陳希軍想了一陣，說田里需要修條水渠。

秦玥飛一個人跑了幾趟北京，讓留學(xué)圈里的朋友牽線，找到幾個企業(yè)和個人贊助。他湊了15萬元回來，村里集體投票，通過了修水渠的方案。

二組一個姓劉的組員沒到場投票，還到處跟組里人說，別答應(yīng)修，保證大家不吃虧。其他組或者跟了份子錢請工人，或者自己人出力，在田埂上作業(yè)施工。水渠挖好，用水泥硬化了，前后都要完工了，只差中間二組那段還是爛泥雜草。

秦玥飛還沒碰到過潛規(guī)則，以前看網(wǎng)上新聞?wù)f得有模有樣，他不信，哪里來那么多潛規(guī)則?，F(xiàn)在村干部明白告訴他，劉組員就是想要錢。

太陽升在天上，文明人知道那是地球在自轉(zhuǎn)，原始人只看見一個火球出來，根本沒有天體的意識。秦玥飛有一次想到這么個比方。他要服務(wù)的人不懂什么是公共服務(wù)，他們過往的生活經(jīng)驗告訴他們，這是別人要做政績，要完成上級任務(wù)，他們也就以為能據(jù)此討價還價。

Qin Yuefei could often be found in the village carrying a basket or fixing a water heater for the villagers. Most of the time, you would see him lending out a helping hand.

Unspoken Rules

After working in Hejiashan Village for two months, Qin Yuefei told Chen Xijun, the deputy secretary of the township party committee, that he could help raise funds from some enterprises for any construction work in the village. After thinking for a while, Chen Xijun said that a ditch needed to be built in the fields.

Qin Yuefei made several trips to Beijing, and with the aid of other overseas returnees in his friends,circle, he successfully found a sponsorship from some enterprises and individuals. He came back to the village with a total amount of RMB 150,000 yuan, and after a collective vote by the villagers, the proposal to build a ditch was approved.

However, one member in the second group surnamed Liu didn’t show up in the voting, and he told his group not to take action, guaranteeing them that they would profit by following his suggestion, while the team members in other groups had either done a whip-round to pay for the labourers or contributed their own efforts in the job execution. After the digging and cement curing, the ditch was nearly completed, except for one section, still covered by mud and weeds, which was supposed to be done by the second group.

Qin Yuefei had never encountered an unspoken rule before. Although having heard about it from the news,he never believed it. A village cadre told him explicitly that Liu was just after money.

When the sun rises, a civilized person knows that the earth is rotating, but in the eyes of a primitive man, it is nothing but a fireball coming out of the ground, as he lacks the knowledge of celestial bodies. This was an analogy that Qin Yuefei came up with. The people that he served didn’t understand what public service was, and according to their past life experience, the ditch incident was due to someone’s desire in making achievements and fulfilling a task assigned by his or her superiors;therefore, they thought that they could take it as their bargaining chip.

Qin Yuefei was honored one of the ten China 's inspirational role models in 2016秦玥飛獲得2016年度感 動中國人物獎

Over the subsequent week, Qin Yuefei went to Liu’s home time and again, trying to build good relations with him. Qin Yuefei addressed him as Uncle Liu immediately after entering his home, and he also sent him several packs of cigarettes as a gift, and after which, he began to talk about the ditch in a polite manner. After several twists and turns, the ditch was finally completed the next January.

之后的一個星期里，秦玥飛反復(fù)上劉家要先搞好關(guān)系。他進門叫劉伯伯，送了幾包煙，又客客氣氣提起水渠的事。多番波折后，水渠終于在第二年1月完工。

鄉(xiāng)政府青年公務(wù)員湯飛龍覺得，得虧秦玥飛是耶魯畢業(yè)的。村官沒編制，他在村里又是外來人，除了跑腿打字，哪能找來資源去推進什么項目，資源都是從秦玥飛自己學(xué)歷上來的。秦玥飛也承認，耶魯畢業(yè)生的身份給他幫了大忙。不光是人脈資源，就是拿出來講故事，情節(jié)也強。

2012年末，湖南電視臺報道了秦玥飛服務(wù)農(nóng)村的事跡。2013年5月4日，湖南省政府授予秦玥飛個人一等功獎?wù)隆?0月13日，央視評選全國十大“最美村官”，秦玥飛被評上了。頒獎詞介紹他是“喝洋墨水，走鄉(xiāng)土路，身懷夢想，腳踏實地的耶魯哥”，宣傳片反復(fù)特寫著他腳上穿的解放鞋，水渠成了秦玥飛“最大的政績”。

也有記者想知道秦玥飛受西方教育，會怎么處理農(nóng)村里傳統(tǒng)人情和現(xiàn)代規(guī)則的沖突。秦玥飛舉出劉組員的事。他說他去噓寒問暖，去多了，對方也就不好意思刁難了?！斑@樣的例子就是又兼顧人情，又維持一種議事原則?！?/p>

三明治

秦玥飛的第二個村官任期到2017年8月也要滿了。整個湖南省已經(jīng)不再招募新村官，也不再續(xù)聘老村官。要是不在農(nóng)村做事，他最容易想到的就是進咨詢公司。他的幾個老同學(xué)這5年里在公司的職位層級都升上去，工資可觀，買了房，結(jié)了婚，贍養(yǎng)著父母。

Qin Yuefei(right) and his partners are recording a propaganda film for "Serve for China ", calling on more youths to participate in the rural work.秦玥飛（右）與小伙伴們?yōu)楹谕聋溙锕娼M織錄制宣傳片，號召更多年輕學(xué)子加入鄉(xiāng)村建設(shè)。

Tang Feilong, a young civil servant in the township government,thought that if Qin Yuefei wasn’t a Yale graduate, it would have been impossible for him to promote any project at all. Although a village official, he wasn’t a member of the national civil servants, and to the villagers, he was an outsider;therefore, except for some legwork and paperwork, there were no resources for him to utilize. All the resources were from his own educational background. Even Qin Yuefei himself admitted that his identity as a Yale graduate was of great help. With such an identity,not to mention a good interpersonal network, the fact itself would be a fascinating story to tell.

At the end of 2012, Hunan TV covered Qin Yuefei’s story of working in a village. On May 4, 2013, Qin Yuefei was awarded an Order of Merit by the Hunan Provincial Government,and on October 13th, he was selected as one of the top-ten “Most Beautiful Village Officials”, with a citation saying, “Brother Yale, an overseas returnee walking on a country road,aiming high while keeping both feet on the ground.” Moreover, his advertising video repeatedly showed a close-up of his liberation shoes,and the ditch became his biggest achievement.

One journalist asked Qin Yuefei how he would deal with the conflict between the traditional code of conduct in the village and the rules in modern society, since he was educated in the west. Qin Yuefei gave the example of Mr. Liu in reply. He said that he always went to visit Liu’s home and showed him great concern,and after some visits, Liu found it embarrassing to create difficulties any more. “Such an example has not only taken human feelings into account,but also maintained the rules of procedure.” Said Qin Yuefei.

Dilemma

The second term of Qin Yuefei’s appointment as a village official expires in August of 2017. However,the whole Hunan Province has stopped recruiting new village officials, and neither will they extend the contracts of incumbent village officials. In case he no longer works in a village, a consulting firm would be the first idea that came to Qin Yuefei’s mind. Over the past five years, several of his classmates have been promoted to a high position in their companies,earning a good salary, and all of them have gotten married and bought apartments—and they are supporting their parents as well.

Looking back on his own course of life, he feels it is surreal. “Was it real?Or was it just a fantasy of an idealist who had never considered what reality was? I don’t believe it was a fantasy, as I have spent half a decade living in it.”

Qin Yuefei said that one night in February of 2014, he felt extremely perplexed about his future. With only one percent battery left on hismobile, he surfed Humans of New York—a website posting the innermost thoughts and feelings of strangers on a daily basis.That night, the “stranger” was Barack Obama. Qin Yuefei read out Obama’s words to me in English, “I got beat once… I was in the minority party, I wasn’t getting a lot done, and I was away from my family… I was fifty years old, and I’d invested a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t seem to be working.”

“If you’re worrying about yourself—if you’re thinking:‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’—then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep on your hard work, you’ll always have a path.”

In June of 2014, Qin Yuefei registered a non-profit organization named “Sunrise Operation Rural Service Innovation Centre” in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and later,he proposed another initiative called “Serve for China.” He wanted to recruit a group of college students to start a business in different villages, while lobbying some enterprises into participating in this public welfare undertaking. In his plan,the enterprises would cover the expenses of the students, and the students, after getting familiar with the local condition,could come up with an idea to guide the villagers to become rich. Moreover, when those students came back to the city after fulfilling the task, they would have priority to get a job in those enterprises.

“China is the biggest market for the public welfare undertaking. For the future of China, it is important to know how to utilize the country’s accumulated wealth over the past two decades and divert them to where they are needed most.”Said Qin Yuefei.

Qin Yuefei had contacted some non-profit organizations,and one of them agreed to donate 5000 solar street lights to him. At the beginning of May, when I visited Baiyun village where Qin Yuefei worked, he showed me a soil ditch where I saw a few poles standing upright on the ground. With fist-like balls on the top, the poles were no higher than my ankles. It turned out that these poles were floor-mounted solar lights.Qin Yuefei said, “They had a romantic idea—that is, to light up the way home for the villagers. But how could they make it happen?” The lights were designed to stay close to the ground so that people could only see a small circle of hazy light. The village committee reminded him that those solar lights, if mounted along the roads, might be stolen some day; therefore,Qin Yuefei distributed them to each household so that they could stick the light poles in their own yards.

他回想自己的整條人生軌跡，有種超現(xiàn)實的感覺?！八降资遣皇菍嵲诘模炕蛘呤且粋€根本沒有考慮過現(xiàn)實的理想主義者的幻想。但是我不愿意相信是夢幻，因為我用了半個十年去活這場夢?！?/p>

他說2014年2月的一個晚上，那是他覺得特別迷茫的時候，手機上的電量只有1%，他用來上了那家叫“Humans of New York”的網(wǎng)站。這家網(wǎng)站每天發(fā)布一個陌生人的自白。那天的自白者是奧巴馬。秦玥飛把那段英文念給我聽：“我大敗過一場……我在一個少數(shù)派里，我沒能做成很多事，我又遠離著家庭……我50歲了，我在一個看起來沒成效的事情里投入巨大的時間精力……”

“如果你只是擔心你自己，如果你想的是，我是不是在往成功路上去？我是不是在一個對的位子上？我的價值得沒得到賞識？那么你最后只能覺得無奈，進退兩難。但只要你接著干下去，你總會摸索出一條路的?！?/p>

2014年6月，秦玥飛在民政部注冊一家名為“朝陽行動鄉(xiāng)村服務(wù)創(chuàng)新中心”的公益組織，之后又慢慢構(gòu)想出一個“黑土麥田鄉(xiāng)村創(chuàng)客計劃”。他要招募一批大學(xué)生到各地農(nóng)村去創(chuàng)業(yè)，同時游說企業(yè)參與這項公益事業(yè)。他需要企業(yè)贊助大學(xué)生的工資，讓大學(xué)生了解農(nóng)村的情況后，找出一個創(chuàng)業(yè)的點子，帶領(lǐng)農(nóng)民致富。在他們完成任務(wù)回到城市的時候，企業(yè)又能優(yōu)先錄用他們?yōu)閱T工。

秦玥飛說：“中國是公益事業(yè)最大的市場。如何使用中國以往這二十年所累積的財富，引導(dǎo)這些錢到該用的地方去，這對中國的前途很重要?！?/p>

他也聯(lián)系過幾家公益組織，其中一家答應(yīng)捐贈給他5000盞太陽能路燈。2016年5月初，我在白云的時候，他指給我看一條土溝，溝里有幾根到腳踝那么高的小桿子，桿頭上結(jié)著拳頭似的小球——原來就是一支支插地式的太陽能燈?！八麄兿氲煤芾寺f要照亮村民回家的路。這個要怎么照亮呢？”設(shè)計者把光源設(shè)計得離地面很近，人們只能看見一小圈模糊的光。村委說燈放在路上會被人偷走。秦玥飛把燈分給各家各戶，讓他們插在自家院子里。

尾聲

Epilogue

This young man doesn’t have too much to rely on, and he couldn’t have completed any project without the help and resources from others. He has nothing but time, a silver tongue, a Graduation Certificate from Yale, and a national title of honor.

When I took a flight to Hengshan County with Qin Yuefei, I brought the Great Gatsby with me. He flipped through the book and read out a paragraph at the start of it—“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world have not had the advantages that you have had.”

At the end of May of 2016,Qin Yuefei was on the train heading to Hengshan County again. When a steward came to check the wall-mounted luggage rack, a suitcase protruded beyond the edge of the rack.The steward declared that the suitcase must be taken down for security reasons. One woman promised that she would bring it down in a second. Yet, after the steward left, she changed her mind, saying that the suitcase was too heavy for her to carry.After a few moments of silence,Qin Yuefei stood up and said,“Let me help you with it.” The woman thanked him. Qin Yuefei knew that if he didn’t do it, the woman wouldn’t have taken down the suitcase herself, and other passengers who were capable might not lend her a helping hand, and no one knew when the steward would be back,so the train would move on with hidden dangers. ◆

(Chen Xijun and Tang Feilong in the story are pseudonyms.)

(From China and World Periodical Digest, January 2017.Translation:Zhu Yaguang)

這是個一無所有的年輕人。他做的任何項目都要調(diào)動別人的資源，得到別人的資助。他有的只是時間，嘴皮子，一個名校學(xué)歷，一個通報給全國的榮譽稱號。

我跟著秦玥飛去衡山的時候，帶了一本《了不起的蓋茨比》。他拿去翻了翻，然后把開頭那段英文念出來：“當你想要批評別人的時候，你要記得，這個世界上不是所有人都有跟你一樣的優(yōu)勢?！?/p>

2016年5月底，秦玥飛坐在火車上，等著車再一次開往衡山。乘務(wù)員來檢查車頂行李架，有只箱子凸了出來。乘務(wù)員聲明不安全，得拿下來。一個女人說，我等一下拿。乘務(wù)員走了。女人卻說，我拿不動。沒人出聲，兩三秒后，秦玥飛站起來：“我?guī)湍隳冒??！迸说懒酥x。秦玥飛相信她自己不會去拿行李的，其他有力氣的人也不會拿，管理者不知道什么時候才會再來，而這列火車會一直帶著這個問題開下去。

（文中“陳希軍”“湯飛龍”為化名）◆

（摘自《中外文 摘》2017年第1期）

耶魯村官秦玥飛

文/揚眉