While most graduates prefer to work in an office environment, some have opted to work behind a butcher's block. Wu Ni finds out what motivates them.

Wielding a sharp knife, Sun Xia expertly carves a chunk of pork into several sections. Ribs, lean meat and streaky pork are smartly divided.

She looks every bit like an old hand in the butcher's trade except for her age - a far cry from what she was like a few months ago. Then, the 22-year-old university graduate from Hainan University could not even hold a knife steadily.

Sun sells pork in Aohua Market in Tianshan Road, Changning district of Shanghai.

While most meat stalls in the market reek of freshly slaughtered meat, Sun's stall is brightly decorated with posters. The only female butcher in the market, she is always neatly dressed in her work clothes of yellow and green.

"My mom still cannot accept my career choice to be a butcher," Sun says. "I guess her only concern is decency, after all, parents are afraid of losing face when talking about their children's jobs. But I don't care and I think the job is promising," Sun says.

She is confident of a future with her employer, Farm Pork No 1, a pig raising and pork producing company based in Guangdong with about 500 stores in the province. The company launched 12 pork shops in Shanghai on Jan 25. Among the 108 employees at its Shanghai branch, half are university or college graduates.

In China, it is almost unthinkable for a graduate to become a butcher. In 2003, Lu Buxuan, a graduate from Peking University, opted to sell pork for a living after he failed in various jobs. His case sparked a heated debate throughout the nation.

But, according to Chen Sheng, founder of Farm Pork No 1, society is changing. "Most university graduates still refuse the work, but there are some who would like to try."

There are about 600 university graduates in Chen's company, almost a third of the employees.

"We attract them based on our credentials as a modern enterprise. We are not traditional pig farms.

"We emphasize high-end products, food safety and brand awareness. Our pork shops are no different from McDonald's chain stores.

"The perception of butchers is, they are rough and rude. But our employees are polite, skillful and we emphasize good customer service to meet the demands of China's growing middle class," he says.

For some customers, it is the chain store model, rather than the graduate butchers, that attracts them to Farm Pork No 1. To them, the chain store equals reliability and consistency in terms of food quality.

Chen, who graduated from Peking University in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in economics, established a butcher's school to train qualified meat cutters. He even invited his schoolmate Lu Buxuan to be an honorary headmaster of the school.

"Lu wrote a training course for the school. He has so much experience selling pork," Chen says.

Sun is one of the fresh graduates from the butcher's school. She describes the 45-day course as "really tough".

"During the first week, we had military training and those who were not physically strong were eliminated. In the following days, we got up at 3:30 am and started chopping sticks for 2.5 hours to strengthen our wrists."

Lin Wenqian, a veteran meat cutter and a teacher in the butcher's school, says that the meat looks good only if it is cut correctly and forcefully. During the whole training course, these butcher wannabes have to chop a ton of wood, among other items.

Sun also learned that there are more than 35 parts to a pig, and she now knows the characteristics of each and how best to cook it. With this knowledge, she is able to give her customers advice on which parts to buy for their recipes.

About half of the trainees drop out of the course or are eliminated during the final exams, she says.

Frontline butchers earn more than 3,000 yuan ($480) per month, while the annual salary for managers is more than 100,000 yuan, according to Chen.

"These undergraduate butchers can be promoted to become managers in two or three years if they perform well. The career advancement here is better than most companies," Chen adds.

Sun is looking forward to becoming a manager one day. But for now, she and her four colleagues have to work very hard - wake up at 5:30 am everyday, cut meat, cook pork for customers to taste, and put on pig costumes to distribute advertising leaflets in the market. Their day ends at about 8 pm when there are no more customers.

"Work is really exhausting, but I can see my future and am working toward it," she says.

Contact the writer at wuni@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 02/20/2013 page20)