Job-hunting pressures and an uncertain future with their college lovers have left millions of China's university graduates with a heavy heart as they begin to count down their final days in college.

It is a dilemma that many of them have to choose: to pursue a better job while ending their relationship or to continue their romance by taking a less-paid job in a less-attractive city.

When asked to make the only choice between job and love, 85 percent of university graduates opted for a better job instead of keeping their relationship while only 10 percent chose to keep their love, according to a survey conducted by the Zhengzhou Normal College this month.

The survey collected 3,192 questionnaires from students, mostly graduates, at three universities and colleges in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, China's most populous province.

"Only with love can we find the flavor for the bread," said Liu Yongli, a girl graduate who chose love and abandon job in the survey.

But she admitted that a relationship does rely on a "material basis."

"In today's society, we women can't completely depend on men," Liu said. "Love needs to be safeguarded by our jobs."

Li Liang, a male graduate, has another interpretation.

"Were love a flower, bread would be the nourishment that the flower relies on," Li said. "Without the nourishment, the flower will wither away."

The bread-or-love dilemma just mirrors one of the great challenges for millions of China's university graduates, who have been exhausted by how to land a job amid the waves of unemployment.

China has about 3.38 million four-year or three-year university graduates this year, of whom about one quarter will be unable to find a job, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.

In China, employment was once no problem during the old planned-economy era but at that time break-ups among campus lovers were very common because then individual graduates had no choice but to accept the job assigned by the state.

But problem arose since many of those campus lovers were assigned in different cities, which made it impossible to continue their relationship.

Though such obstacles have been removed and university graduates can freely choose their ideal place to work, their relationship with campus lovers usually succumbs to modern temptations, like a higher-salaried job or a better chance for their career in a different city.

Experts in social science say in the past the relationship was forced to end but now they volunteer to wind up their love.

"To choose bread is a physical instinct of mankind," said Ren Xianguo, a teacher who has closely studied students' thoughts at Zhengzhou Normal College.

"To survive the ruthless competition in a market-driven society," he said, "it is natural for graduates to become realistic."

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2005)