The popular Chinese expression cunguan (village head) is a potent one. It suggests the integration of a university graduate's future with the mission to develop the new socialist countryside.

President Hu Jintao endorsed this integration after he received a letter from a graduate-turned village head in suburban Beijing. The gesture points to the far-reaching impact of this mission involving thousands of college graduates.

Actually, this integration reflects mutual dependence between rural villages and university graduates who choose to go there.

On the one hand, there are far too many graduates with higher degrees in big cities, the number of graduates having increased to more than 5 million annually. The slowdown in economic growth due to the financial crisis has further aggravated the already severe competition on the job market.

This has made them realistic and think about applying what they had learnt to the development of rural villages.

On the other hand, rural villagers, rural areas and agriculture have been left behind in the country's economic and social advancement. Among other things, a lack of educated talents has long been an obstacle to rural prosperity.

The vast countryside has seldom received university graduates in the past three decades.

The decision by the central government earlier this year to recruit as many as 100,000 university graduates in five years to work as village heads is a move that has long been overdue.

Central and local governments have offered preferential policies to the graduates after they work for a certain period in rural villages. These will encourage them to face the harsh reality that they might have never encountered before.

University graduates, born in the 1980s, those from urban areas in particular, have been sheltered too much by their parents and grandparents. As far as their all-round development is concerned, the scheme has scratched exactly where it itches. They do need a hard environment to groom themselves so that they hopefully develop a strong will and personality. This will be beneficial to their future development, as well as for the country.

From a long-term point of view, we do need youngsters who are strong-willed enough to endure hardships and nurture mature minds to deal with complicated situations. This will help them shoulder their duties at various levels.

They will hopefully make up the taskforce for the construction of the new socialist countryside. The country's prosperity in the near future also requires this.

(China Daily 12/26/2008 page8)