, sometimes known by the English term involution, is a Chinese term that describes a condition in which a system, institution, or competitive process continues to intensify in effort, complexity, or participation without a corresponding increase in output, efficiency, or collective benefit. Neijuan is the Chinese calque of the English word involution. Neijuan is written with two characters which mean 'inside' and 'curling/rolling'.
Neijuan had been used to describe an uneven distribution of social, economic, and educational resources and ongoing economic malaise, especially in terms of higher education bodies and labor markets. On a macroeconomic level, neijuan has led to overproduction and diminishing returns for capital owners who engage in fierce price wars that aggravate deflationary pressures in a pure unregulated market. When capital owners are driven by competition they must work increasingly more for little or no marginal gain despite falling prices for consumers so price fixing or 'price leadership' becomes impossible. On a personal level, 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.
Origin and conceptualization 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 stabilize 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 utilized by fellow American anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who popularized the term in his 1963 book Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia. In this work, Geertz analyzed 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 labor 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 (), 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 (), published in 2000, which deviated from Geertz's original explanation.
Involution has been described as, 'a process in which increasing levels of individual effort and competition fail to produce proportional gains in productivity or outcomes, resulting instead in diminishing returns and intensified internal competition for capital owners.' As more participants in the market adopt similar strategies to secure limited opportunities, relative advantages among capitalists disappear, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which greater input is required merely to maintain their same market position. This lack of surplus value to spend on political control also hurts capital owners by preventing their natural capture of state power in a pure market at the expense of the consumer who funds their ownership of the persons and tools of government through patronage and relative advantage.
Since 2020, the word involution () 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 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. Dissemination and evolution 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.
Tsinghua's Involuted King 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.
This incident sparked others to post pictures of other hard-working students who were dubbed Involuted Kings. The liking and reposting of similar pictures made neijuan among China's top 10 buzzwords of the year.
Neijuan in the IT industry In 2021, the concept of university neijuan translated into China's competitive tech industry, which is the preferred destination for most graduates. With an increasing number of graduates with relevant educational qualifications, the job market is becoming very competitive. This leaves many to work in areas they are overqualified for, like becoming takeaway drivers. In association with these views, these pictures were popularized.
996 working culture
Many graduates get involved in 996 working culture, like takeaway services, after they leave university. Many takeaway drivers deliver food for Meituan, a delivery-service corporation with a competitive business culture.
Economic overproduction Beginning in 2024, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in its theoretical journal Qiushi, has identified neijuan as a macroeconomic concern. In the context of macroeconomics, neijuan has been defined as "unhealthy competition in which economic actors seeking to maintain their position in a market, or competing for share of a limited market, constantly invest substantial resources and energy without generating any profit growth." With falling production costs and sales prices leading to concern over deflation, the CCP has sought to combat neijuan by guiding and regulating private businesses and standardizing nationwide market conditions.
Associated cultural aspects
Education
Parental views As a result of neijuan, most Chinese middle-class parents no longer see education as a conveyance of upward social mobility. Parents feel the need to overcompensate just to ensure their children won't fall back on the social ladder in the coming years. These intensified efforts are through active involvement and increased spending. Parental involvement is manifested in the following ways.
First, parents familiarize themselves with what is being taught at school, to ensure they can teach their children if needed. It has become a common occurrence for parents to buy three copies of books in subjects like mathematics, one book for the student, one for the parents at home and one to be left at work.
Second, compared to their Western counterparts, the struggle of choosing the best educational institutions starts as early as daycare and not pre-university. Parents are anxious because of increasing competition, and correspondingly start getting fully involved in their children's education from a very young age. As a consequence of neijuan, parents feel that nurturing competent applicants for elite universities requires them to follow an established order of doing things. Timing has also become a significant factor.
Third, parents now find themselves in positions where they must push their children very hard, and children have little to no say. Pressuring their children is a characteristic that many middle-class parents share. This behavior has popularized terms like ('chicken child'), tiger mom, and chicken blood, referring to the ambitious and pushy parenting of contemporary Chinese parents. A tiger mom is a controlling mother who does not allow her children any freedom. Examples of tiger mom behavior include making primary school children study subjects like chemistry and physics through after-school tutoring even though schools do not introduce these subjects until the third year of junior secondary school. One parent explained "it is not enough to compete just in terms of studies", having some sort of talent is now seen as a significant entry requirement to elite universities. As a result, some talents such as playing the piano and swimming are not as valuable as they once were, as shown in the lists below:
Moreover, middle-class Chinese parents overcompensate for the cost spent on their children's education. In the 2010s and 2020s there has been a trend for parents to relocate to Haidian, a district in Beijing. Haidian is well known for self-sacrificing and education-focused parents, because of the strong public institutions found in the area. Schools in Haidian teach programming from a very young age; by the time children are in secondary school, they are already at an advanced level in programming languages like C++ and Python. In other subjects such as mathematics, many schools in Haidian have their students start learning secondary school mathematics when they are only in the fifth or sixth grade, laying a foundation for future studies. Most parents want to move to cities with quality public schools like the city of Haidian, regardless of cost. To ensure their children can attend esteemed schools, parents pay high real estate prices. Meanwhile, the cost of after-school tutoring is extremely high. The price of an after-school class for junior secondary school students in Haidian can reach RMB 1,000 per hour.
University student views In university, learning is more independent, and students are responsible for what and when they learn. Though university is thought of as a time to make new friends, explore new interests and understand oneself better, the reality is different in China.
Work-life balance