May 26, 2006
Which occupation is the most dangerous in Shanghai?
Now take a wild guess: Which occupation is the most dangerous in Shanghai? According to this report (in Chinese) by the Shanghai Evening Post, journalists, corporate managers and scientific researchers are the top ones in danger now.
Why? Xiong Sidong, director of Immunology Institute of Fudan University explains Shanghainese are threatened by a variety of physical ailments and karoshi (guolao si 过劳死 or "death from overwork"). And the three occupations listed above are the most stressful on employees in the city.
According to a recent survey, 79 percent of journalists in the city die between 40-60 years old -- the average life span is 45.7 years old! -- and another survey by the Chinese Academy of Science shows the average life span for scientific researchers to be 52.23. Some 15.6 percent of them die between the ages 35-54. Also, a survey targeting corporate managers interviewed 3,539 people -- the result is not much better. Ninety percent of them think the work pressure is huge, 76 percent think they are nervous at work, and worst, a quarter of those surveyed said they had health problems related to work stress.
Aiyo. This isn't good news for this Shanghaiist. If you read our profile, you know what we do for a living. But what do we do if we stop writing? Now that's a dilemma that may give us a stress-related disease.

