QiuShi is the official political theory magazine of the CCP, and they are now openly discussing 内卷, which has many names in English - involution, overproduction, overcompetition. Most people outside of China know the symptoms of it as 996, aka China's recent phenomena of overwork. But really it's just personal and corporate competition taken to the extreme, spreading from the economy to high school students taking gaokao.
It's pretty radical that the government is openly acknowledging this, but also that they are signaling that this is a problem to solve.
toomuchtodo · 12m ago
What has caused the CCP to focus on this suddenly? Declining fertility rates (~1 TFR)? Or something else?
dluan · 4m ago
If I had to guess, it's many factors all combining. The main one has to be the economic one, which is that intense over-competition between companies is now affecting domestic production - the race to the bottom is no longer producing the profits it used to when it was competing for overseas customers, and is now undercutting domestic production.
Another is definitely declining birth rates, though this is happening worldwide, but a lot of people seem to think juan is also a factor. It's not necessarily that the amount of money needed to start a family and have kids is too high, but just that young people are delaying it more and more. Plus the recent economic downturn and too many educated young unemployed people.
This whole ting started off as an internet meme in 2018 with a video of Tsinghua university students riding home on bicycles, and there's one kid with a laptop open studying while riding a bike. Then in classic internet fashion, it escalated with other photos of someone eating noodles while studying while riding a bike, and it continues. The concept is now a part of daily life for a lot of people.
It's pretty radical that the government is openly acknowledging this, but also that they are signaling that this is a problem to solve.
Another is definitely declining birth rates, though this is happening worldwide, but a lot of people seem to think juan is also a factor. It's not necessarily that the amount of money needed to start a family and have kids is too high, but just that young people are delaying it more and more. Plus the recent economic downturn and too many educated young unemployed people.
This whole ting started off as an internet meme in 2018 with a video of Tsinghua university students riding home on bicycles, and there's one kid with a laptop open studying while riding a bike. Then in classic internet fashion, it escalated with other photos of someone eating noodles while studying while riding a bike, and it continues. The concept is now a part of daily life for a lot of people.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/ws/635/cpsprodpb/1628E/producti...