This essay discusses a catchword 'neijuan', which originated in scholarly discourse but has seen a dramatic increase in everyday usage to describe the intense pressure and competition in educational and work environments in China.
Dr. Jiexiu Chen is an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The term "内卷 (neijuan)" or "involution" has gained significant prominence in public discourse in China since being included in the top 10 Chinese buzzwords of 2020. This concept has become an important vocabulary in the media and everyday language, used to describe the high-pressure academic and work conditions faced by the contemporary Chinese population.
According to scholars' theoretical tracing, the concept of involution was initially proposed by Clifford Geertz in 1963, used to describe the agricultural economic process in Indonesia. Around the year 2000, this term was introduced into the Chinese language by historical sociologist Huang Zongzhi, who, based on the Chinese context, added annotations to Geertz's concept, incorporating the dimension of diminishing marginal output or diminishing marginal returns to labor, defining involution as the phenomenon of decreasing unit labor remuneration under increased labor input.
While the term "involution" originates from an academic concept, some scholars believe that the media and the general public's use of this term has not seriously analyzed the origins and evolution of the concept, nor conducted a critical analysis of the theory constructed based on it, causing the concept itself to become a symbol. Therefore, the social phenomena represented by this term and the social emotions it conveys are more worthy of exploration than the academic lineage of the term itself.
When the term first gained prominence, some journalists conducted research based on posts on social media platforms such as Weibo, Zhihu, and Douban. In discussions related to involution, high-frequency words include structural discourses such as "resources," "development," "capital," "productivity," "system," "distribution," and "market," as well as many individual narratives and situational discussions, such as "competition," "effort," "exploitation," "scramble," "trapped," and "35 years old." Despite the vast differences between industries, people's expressions of involution tend to be homogenized, including the extremization of competition, the excessive elevation of industry barriers, and the narrowing of upward mobility channels.
The concept of "involution" is deeply intertwined with education and parenting practices in contemporary Chinese society. At the heart of this phenomenon lies a pervasive "educational anxiety" that permeates across different social class and educational stages. This anxiety manifests in an intense competition for access to high-quality educational resources, as parents invest significant time, effort, and financial resources in securing educational advantages for their children.
A prime example of this involutionary behavior is the "tiger parenting" strategy, where parents enroll their children in numerous extracurricular activities and tutoring sessions, hoping to give them an edge in the race for academic achievement and future educational or career success. This hyper-competitive approach to parenting has become a widespread practice, reflecting the broader societal pressures and anxieties surrounding education in China.
Scholars have attempted to interpret the emergence of educational involution through various conceptual lenses. One perspective suggests that the phenomenon can be understood as a "prisoner's dilemma" among parents, where the individual decision to engage in "tiger parenting" becomes a self-reinforcing cycle as other parents feel compelled to follow suit, leading to an escalation of the educational arms race. Similarly, the "theater effect" concept has been used to critique these "tiger parents" as rule-breakers, who contribute to the worsening of the overall educational environment and the perpetuation of broader societal anxiety.
However, these individual-level interpretations tend to downplay the influence of structural factors within the Chinese education system. The hierarchical and unequal nature of the education system, with stark differences between urban and rural schools, as well as key and non-key schools, creates a structural environment that fosters involutionary dynamics. Faced with this unequal distribution of educational opportunities, many parents are inevitably drawn into the competition for access to quality educational resources, further perpetuating the cycle of hyper-competitive educational practices and parenting behaviors.
From a broader social and cultural perspective, the roots of educational and occupational involution can be traced to long-standing social traditions, such as meritocracy and a hierarchical occupational system (Zheng, 2020). These deeply embedded cultural values and social structures have shaped the competitive dynamics and anxieties that characterize the involution phenomenon in contemporary Chinese society. For instance, in the employment sector, the vast differences in occupational status and prestige have led most people to pursue high-end, glamorous white-collar professions, while being quite resistant to physical labor and blue-collar jobs. This preference for prestigious occupations has further deepened the degree of social involution, as the screening mechanism in China's educational streaming process reinforces these hierarchical distinctions.
Since 2020, the enduring effects of the pandemic have exacerbated the emotional toll of involution on Chinese society. Social media platforms have become a venue for passive emotional expressions, with users frequently describing feelings of being "paralyzed," "tired," "powerless," "collapsed," and "gone mad" in relation to the pressures of involution.
Research has found a direct correlation between university students' involutionary behaviors and increased levels of anxiety. Yi and colleagues' empirical study categorized these involution behaviors into three types: passive involution, reward-oriented involution, and achievement-motivated involution. Notably, the first two types – passive involution and reward-oriented involution – were significantly and positively associated with the generation of anxiety among the student population.
As the "most difficult employment season" approaches, with over 11 million graduates entering the job market, new discussions and complaints around "job-hunting" and "quiet quitting" have emerged on social media, further highlighting the younger generation's struggles with involution. Through these widespread discussions, the connotation of the term "involution" is constantly being updated and enriched, serving as a window into the complex social mechanisms and individual challenges faced by the younger generation in the post-pandemic era.
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