“Neijuan” (Involution) and “Tangping” (lying flat), two buzzwords extremely popular among the young Chinese generation, denote “engage in excessive competition” and “avoid competition” respectively, both of which mirror the frustration felt by the young Chinese in intensely competitive Chinese society.
Originally stemmed from anthropology, involution describes a situation that greater input does not yield proportional output. Competition among different industries in China is getting increasingly intensified. However, for China’s young population, their consistent hard work does not lead to any breakthrough in their life and work, which has almost worn themselves out. When they found out the word “neijuan” (involution) has captured their sense of helplessness under hypercompetition precisely, and then the word has become an overnight sensation on social media.
The more and more adversarial relationship between young Chinese and their employers or even capitalism further reflected the young’s disgruntlement over “neijuan”. Since they have already missed the golden era of staggering Chinese economic growth after the reform and opening up, they can do nothing but see both the burgeoning economy and unlimited opportunities slipping away from them. All these have exacerbated their dissatisfaction with the relentless competition prevalent in Chinese society. In a bid to vent their emotions, capitalists like prominent business figure Jack Ma have fallen from grace and become the so-called “bloodsucking ghost” preying on the young Chinese.
As the term “neijuan” has taken over the internet for half a year, another term called “tangping” deemed as a far cry from “neijuan” has emerged suddenly. The word means one has decided to withdraw from the relentless competition. “‘Tangping’ is the young Chinese’s silent protest against ‘neijuan’ to give up all the unmeaningful competition to steer their way out of the competition,” said Biao Xiang, a professor from the University of Oxford.
Nevertheless, according to Fang Xu, a lecturer at UC Berkeley, he thought that “neijuan” will be here to stay for at least 50 years ahead before any ground-breaking technological innovations come out.
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