Why China is cracking down on ‘involution’

The word “involution”, or neijuan – referring to excessive competition in social and economic life – has become a common slang term in China. Students, workers and even business leaders have been feeling overworked, stressed and unable to find a way out of huge external and internal pressures.

This usage of the term has its roots in the work of anthropologists who employed it to describe conditions in rural societies where increasing labour inputs did not seem to yield tangible benefits. The term became popular on Chinese social media in 2020, particularly in relation to students being pushed by their parents to spend more time on preparing for competitive examinations.

Gig workers who operate on a “996” work schedule – 9am to 9pm, six days a week – feeling the intense pressure of making deliveries on time but not seeing much, if any, benefit to their income is an example of this dilemma. The Chinese capacity to work harder and longer hours than anybody else has been part of the nation’s resurgence in competitiveness in export industries, notably in electronics, consumer products, electric vehicles, batteries and the like.