Work & Hustle2020sinformal

内卷

nèi juǎn

Involution — excessive, often pointless competition where everyone works harder but nobody gains more.

Origin & Background

Originally an anthropological term, it went viral in 2020 when photos of Tsinghua students studying on laptops while biking circulated online.

Examples

The tech industry in China is so 内卷 — everyone works 996 just to keep up.

现在考研太内卷了。(The graduate school entrance exam is so involuted now.)

Related Slang

打工人

dǎ gōng rén

Working people / wage slaves — a self-deprecating term workers use to describe themselves.

996

jiǔ jiǔ liù

Working 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week — describes the grueling work culture in Chinese tech companies.

卡点

kǎ diǎn

Arriving at exactly the last possible moment — being precisely on time with zero margin.

割韭菜

gē jiǔ cài

Harvesting leeks — scamming or exploiting consumers/investors, especially through overpriced products or bad investments.