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Neijuan
Neijuan (Chinese: 内卷; pinyin: nèijuǎn; lit. 'to curl inwards' IPA: [nei̯˥˩tɕɥɛn˩˧]) is the Chinese calque of the English word involution. Neijuan is written with two characters which mean 'inside' and 'rolling'. Neijuan has disseminated to nearly all walks of life in mainland China in the early 21st century, due to the uneven distribution of social, economic, and educational resources and ongoing economic malaise, especially in terms of higher education bodies and labour markets. Neijuan reflects a life of being overworked, stressed, anxious and feeling trapped, a lifestyle where many face the negative effects of living a very competitive life for nothing.
Involution was developed as a sociological concept by American anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser in his 1937 book Anthropology: An Introduction To Primitive Culture. In this work, Goldenweiser identifies involution as a cultural process. That when a society reaches its final form it cannot evolve nor stabilise itself. Instead, it can only complicate its internal elements. Goldenweiser uses Māori decorative art as an example. The development of art was done within the framework of already existing patterns. The final pieces were elaborate and complicated in appearance but fundamentally the same as existing art.
This term was later utilised by fellow American anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who popularised the term in his 1963 book Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia. In this work, Geertz analysed the rice farming process in Indonesia following Dutch colonial rule. Geertz found that despite the complexity of the process, coupled with the increasing amount of labour being assigned to it, productivity remained stagnant. All these efforts to increase productivity yielded little results, while complicating the already existing processes and systems. For Geertz this was involution.
Geertz's concept was introduced into Chinese rural studies by the Indian sinologist Prasenjit Duara and the Chinese historian Philip Huang (黄宗智; Huang Zongzhi), arousing some controversy in Chinese academic circles. Huang explained involution using the economic concept of diminishing returns in his book The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China (华北的小农经济与社会变迁), published in 2000, which deviated from Geertz's original explanation.
Since 2020, the word involution (neijuan) has become an internet slang word in mainland China, and by extension refers to a culture in which people are expected to keep ahead of others. It can also have other negative connotations including 'cut throat competition', and 'race to the bottom', depending on context. Xiang Biao, an anthropologist, describes involution as "a dead loop in which people constantly force themselves" and "a race that participants are not allowed to fail or exit". Some other people[who?] describe it as a process in which people "gain a slight advantage by exploiting themselves and competing excessively within a group". Influenced by its popularity, the number of academic papers containing the word involution has increased, but the meaning has further deviated from the original sociological sense, leading to some criticism that the word is being abused.
In contemporary China, the concept of neijuan has spread through media outlets like newspapers and social media platforms like Weibo. On Weibo, the number of page views of various topics related to neijuan has exceeded 1 billion, and in an election in 2020, neijuan was one of China's "top 10 buzzwords" of the year. Neijuan has become so popular because it has a strong influence on the ways of living for youth and contemporary middle-class parents.
Involuted King refers to someone who works extremely hard, by fair means or foul, in order to cope with neijuan.
In September 2020, a picture of a university student from the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing working on his laptop while still riding his bike went viral on social media with more than 1 billion views. The picture of the boy resonated with most millennials and generation Z which includes people born after the 1990s.
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Neijuan
Neijuan (Chinese: 内卷; pinyin: nèijuǎn; lit. 'to curl inwards' IPA: [nei̯˥˩tɕɥɛn˩˧]) is the Chinese calque of the English word involution. Neijuan is written with two characters which mean 'inside' and 'rolling'. Neijuan has disseminated to nearly all walks of life in mainland China in the early 21st century, due to the uneven distribution of social, economic, and educational resources and ongoing economic malaise, especially in terms of higher education bodies and labour markets. Neijuan reflects a life of being overworked, stressed, anxious and feeling trapped, a lifestyle where many face the negative effects of living a very competitive life for nothing.
Involution was developed as a sociological concept by American anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser in his 1937 book Anthropology: An Introduction To Primitive Culture. In this work, Goldenweiser identifies involution as a cultural process. That when a society reaches its final form it cannot evolve nor stabilise itself. Instead, it can only complicate its internal elements. Goldenweiser uses Māori decorative art as an example. The development of art was done within the framework of already existing patterns. The final pieces were elaborate and complicated in appearance but fundamentally the same as existing art.
This term was later utilised by fellow American anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who popularised the term in his 1963 book Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia. In this work, Geertz analysed the rice farming process in Indonesia following Dutch colonial rule. Geertz found that despite the complexity of the process, coupled with the increasing amount of labour being assigned to it, productivity remained stagnant. All these efforts to increase productivity yielded little results, while complicating the already existing processes and systems. For Geertz this was involution.
Geertz's concept was introduced into Chinese rural studies by the Indian sinologist Prasenjit Duara and the Chinese historian Philip Huang (黄宗智; Huang Zongzhi), arousing some controversy in Chinese academic circles. Huang explained involution using the economic concept of diminishing returns in his book The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China (华北的小农经济与社会变迁), published in 2000, which deviated from Geertz's original explanation.
Since 2020, the word involution (neijuan) has become an internet slang word in mainland China, and by extension refers to a culture in which people are expected to keep ahead of others. It can also have other negative connotations including 'cut throat competition', and 'race to the bottom', depending on context. Xiang Biao, an anthropologist, describes involution as "a dead loop in which people constantly force themselves" and "a race that participants are not allowed to fail or exit". Some other people[who?] describe it as a process in which people "gain a slight advantage by exploiting themselves and competing excessively within a group". Influenced by its popularity, the number of academic papers containing the word involution has increased, but the meaning has further deviated from the original sociological sense, leading to some criticism that the word is being abused.
In contemporary China, the concept of neijuan has spread through media outlets like newspapers and social media platforms like Weibo. On Weibo, the number of page views of various topics related to neijuan has exceeded 1 billion, and in an election in 2020, neijuan was one of China's "top 10 buzzwords" of the year. Neijuan has become so popular because it has a strong influence on the ways of living for youth and contemporary middle-class parents.
Involuted King refers to someone who works extremely hard, by fair means or foul, in order to cope with neijuan.
In September 2020, a picture of a university student from the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing working on his laptop while still riding his bike went viral on social media with more than 1 billion views. The picture of the boy resonated with most millennials and generation Z which includes people born after the 1990s.