Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed reading. We’ve written quite a bit about neijuan 内卷 in RealTime Mandarin over the years. We translate as “destructive competition”.
Ha, didn’t realize boom times was 2011-13. I was in Shanghai for year during that time teaching English like a lot of foreigners. Although I heard those jobs are longer a thing? In any case I would love to go back.
Thanks for the article. I never dug into the culture of China… always busy surviving ha. (I charged too little for English lessons)
I can’t say it is unexpected or unjustified, but I found your piece very Han-centric (eg, in your talk of cultural confidence, entirely Han-based, no talk of “confidence in Tibetan culture”, for instance.) It showed in your brief excursus to “Inner Mongolia”, where Chinese cultural self-confidence is very much at the expense of the titular local nationality. (Xi has gutted education in Mongolian.) Chinese cultural self-confidence is essentially Han chauvinism writ large. Not “China”, “Han”.
Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed reading. We’ve written quite a bit about neijuan 内卷 in RealTime Mandarin over the years. We translate as “destructive competition”.
thanks Andrew! Ya i had seen it before online but was surprised how often people brought it up in conversation about other topics.
It can also be used positively too. For example: 你太卷了 = “you’re so intense”; or 卷王 = involution king
Ha, didn’t realize boom times was 2011-13. I was in Shanghai for year during that time teaching English like a lot of foreigners. Although I heard those jobs are longer a thing? In any case I would love to go back.
Thanks for the article. I never dug into the culture of China… always busy surviving ha. (I charged too little for English lessons)
I can’t say it is unexpected or unjustified, but I found your piece very Han-centric (eg, in your talk of cultural confidence, entirely Han-based, no talk of “confidence in Tibetan culture”, for instance.) It showed in your brief excursus to “Inner Mongolia”, where Chinese cultural self-confidence is very much at the expense of the titular local nationality. (Xi has gutted education in Mongolian.) Chinese cultural self-confidence is essentially Han chauvinism writ large. Not “China”, “Han”.