http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stew20nov20,1,2921870.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
For China's fast-growing airline industry, the screening process for
flight attendants is more beauty pageant than job interview. If you
can't handle a swimsuit competition, don't even try.
By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 20, 2007
BEIJING -- Fly on a Chinese airline and you will be pampered by flight
attendants who look eerily alike. They are young, beautiful and
practically the same height.
This is not a coffee-tea-or-me stereotype but the result of a rigorous
selection process that is much more old-fashioned beauty pageant than
equal-opportunity job interview.
Vying to be flight attendants
Photo Gallery
Vying to be flight attendants
If you're older than 24, don't bother applying.
If you aren't at least a couple of inches taller than the average
Chinese woman, go home.
And if your legs are even remotely similar to tree trunks, don't call
us, we'll call you.
Sound like a throwback to the dark ages of workplace discrimination?
Here, in the world's fastest-growing aviation market, prohibitive
entry barriers are not only tolerated, they're flaunted as symbols of
excellence.
"A lot of Chinese passengers judge the quality of airlines based on
the quality of their flight attendants, meaning are they pretty or not
pretty," said Luo Man, a media director at China Southern, the
country's largest carrier.
Good looks are such a commodity these days, China Southern has put its
annual recruitment drive on TV. Although men are not excluded from the
jobs, only women are featured in the on-television selection process.
The show, funded in part by the airline, follows a six-month audition
-- complete with swimsuit competition and a race involving luggage,
makeup brushes and drink trays -- through several major Chinese
cities. Thousands of young women lined up for the chance to compete
for 180 openings.
China Southern's website for the show, which provides news and
information on the auditions, has had more than 1 million hits.
"This is every little girl's dream," said Lu Ju, 20, who has flown
just three times in her life. "I want to be beautiful like the flight
attendants. They can see the world and go places most people can't."
During a recent taping of the program in a posh resort on the
outskirts of the Chinese capital, Lu and her fellow contestants lined
up with military precision. All wore tight shorts and snug pastel T-
shirts.
In teams of two, they raced against each other, one team member
skipping rope and the other lugging a heavy suitcase. Then, off-
camera, they changed from shorts to the button-down blouse, pencil
skirt and black heels of a flight attendant. Back before the cameras
as the clock ticked, they threw on rouge and eye shadow and touched up
their hair in front of tiny hand-held mirrors, then grabbed trays of
drinks to present to the judges.
Time counts, but so does poise.
"I think I was too nervous," Lu said afterward. "My hair was a little
messy and I didn't carry myself with enough confidence."
Wang Jing, 22, has never flown before but insists it is her life's
calling to work in the sky. Like many of the contestants, she is an
only child who traveled by train to the competition, her mother with
her every step of the way.
"I think this kind of contest is fair," said Li Guoping, 47, Wang's
mother. "This is a service industry. A lot of other Chinese airlines
have flight attendants who are very attractive. People always talk
about which airline has the best-looking flight attendants."
The Chinese preference for young and good-looking cabin crews is
hardly unique in Asia. Singapore Airlines, for example, has built its
reputation on the beauty and hospitality of the sarong-wearing staff
known in its global ad campaigns as the "Singapore Girls."
Chinese airlines are so youth-oriented, many in the cabin crew stop
flying in their 30s. China Southern says it has the oldest staff, with
retirement age capped at 45.
"My parents worry this is an unstable job without a long future," said
Wang Wenjing, 21, a college junior at the contest who dreams of flying
to Paris. "I don't want to be just another office secretary."
Veda Shook is not amused by the focus on looks and youth.
"I find it very offensive," said Shook, international vice president
for the Assn. of Flight Attendants, the world's largest labor union
for cabin crew members, representing more than 55,000 employees at 20
U.S. airlines. "When a carrier views their selection process as a
beauty pageant, it's really a setback to our profession on a global
scale."
Not that Americans haven't been there.
Vying to be flight attendants
Photo Gallery
Vying to be flight attendants
It wasn't until 1971 that it became illegal for airlines to refuse to
hire men as flight attendants or ban married women.
Chinese airline officials say their industry is relatively young and
that it will take time for the public to move beyond the superficial.
Until recently, traveling by air was a privilege reserved for
government officials and the very rich. The first flight attendants
were picked not so much for their looks as their political
reliability. But that is changing fast.
As Chinese people get richer, domestic air traffic could soar nearly
fivefold in two decades, analysts say. To meet the demand, China will
have to buy about 3,400 new aircraft, quadrupling the current fleet
and making the nation the second-largest aviation market in the world
after the United States.
Demand for new flight attendants is so great that a cottage industry
has emerged of academies promising to produce star-quality cabin
crews. The courses can range from etiquette and psychology to basic
English and geography. Once flight attendants are hired by the
airlines, they typically receive additional safety and emergency
training.
"Practically every school is offering flight attendant training these
days, but very few students actually make it as real flight
attendants," said Li Ning, an etiquette instructor in Beijing who
questions Chinese airlines' youth-driven hiring practices.
She prefers the more diverse cabin crews she sees on some foreign
carriers. "I feel safer if the flight attendants are more like mother
figures," she said. "It shows they have been flying for decades and if
they are still working, this must be a very safe airline."
At the China Southern competition, aspiring flight attendant Fu Rao,
18, argues that youth and inexperience can work to her advantage.
"There are a lot of passengers who are also flying for the first time
-- we are in the same boat and therefore better able to put them at
ease," she said.
The vast majority of wannabe flight attendants, however, will never
get to prove that point.
Xue Fei didn't even make the first cut: She stands 5 foot 3, an inch
shorter than the minimum height requirement. The maximum allowed is 5
foot 7.
"They are very strict about height. I know a lot of girls who didn't
make it," said Xue's friend Dai Xialing, a lucky 5 foot 5.
Duan Ran, 20, is tall enough but was still eliminated: She failed to
tuck in her blouse during the all-important walk with the tray of
drinks.
"I asked one of the staff members how the shirt should be worn, and
she said either way," Duan lamented.
In her rush to win, Zhu Xiao- ling fell onto all fours as she dashed
toward the changing room.
"I can't believe I tripped at such a critical moment," she said,
wiping away tears.
How the candidates respond to disappointment and unexpected situations
is all part of the test, as is how well they handle being part of a
team. It's a chance to show their emotional maturity and how badly
they want to win.
A young woman in a pink bikini, identified on the show as Contestant
Number A028, had wept uncontrollably after her team lost a race, and
she talked of giving up. She was given a second chance a few days
later when asked on air what she would do if she were eliminated.
"I am only 20 years old. I have four more years to try again," she
replied with newfound composure and determination. "I will try again
and again until I am too old to qualify."
A028 got the job. |