孔院微课堂丨说热词“内卷”

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说热词“内卷”

On the Buzzword Involution, or Neijuan

（本文转载自《孔子学院》中英文对照版2022年6期/总第76期）

看他补课，我也补课，这是教育“内卷”；等你下班，我再下班，这是职场“内卷”；你抢地段，我也不落后，这是楼市“内卷”······在“内卷”现象日益普遍的今天，你“内卷”了吗？

When you see your peers are receiving private tutoring, you rush to get it for yourself too, this is involution in education; when you outstay your colleagues in the office, this is involution in the workplace; when a rival real estate company bids for a covetable plot, your company rush to follow suit, this is involution in the real estate industry…When everyone around is involuting themselves for something, are you in the rat race too?

所谓“内卷”，即向内部精细化发展。“内”指的是系统内部，“卷(juăn)”的原义是“把物弯成圆筒状”，这里用的是其外延含义“倾轧”。互联网时代下，“内卷”用于指非自愿的被迫竞争或非理性的内部竞争。

Involution, or what in Chinese is called neijuan, is a sociological term which is used more broadly today to describe the increasingly complicated development of a society that tends inward instead of outward. Nei means “inside the system”, whereas juan literally means rolling or curling but here it connotes an extreme and meaningless competition intended solely to outdo your rivals. On the Internet in China today, the word neijuan means one’s involuntary participation in endless competitions or excessive competition among peers. 

在我们的日常工作和生活中，“内卷”一词随处可见。结合具体例子，我们来考察一下“内卷”的词性和用法。

Today neijuan is used everywhere in our daily life. Let’s anatomize the part of the speech of the word and its various usages with example sentences.

首先，“内卷”可作名词，指非理性的内部竞争。比如：

First, neijuan could be used as a noun, denoting the irrational competition in various fields. For example:

（1）互联网行业的“内卷”现象比较普遍。

(1) Neijuan is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the Internet industry.

（2）我们要打破“内卷”，避免毫无意义的恶性竞争。

(2) We should break the vicious circle of neijuan and avoid meaningless competition.

其次，“内卷”也可作动词。有时，“内”可以省略，“卷”字能单独承担整个词语的意义。比如：

Second, neijuan can be used as a verb. Sometimes we can omit nei (inside) and simply use juan to stand for neijuan. For instance:

（1）一到开学季，各大高校的录取通知书就开始“卷”了。

(1) Each year when the new semester begins, colleges would rush to juan each other in the acceptance letter they issue to new students.

（2）竞争越来越激烈了，现在的家长从幼儿园阶段就开始“卷”孩子，又是补习班，又是特长班······

(2) With ever-fiercer competition in education, parents start to juan their kids from kindergarten, hurrying them from private tutorials to talent classes…

第三，“内卷”还可作形容词，表示某种不正常的竞争状态。比如：

Third, neijuan can also be used as an adjective to describe an abnormal, irrational competition. For example:

（1）这家公司整体氛围很“卷”，员工熬夜加班是常态。

(1) The corporate culture of this firm is very juan and the employees are accustomed to excessively long working hours.

（2）我的同学都太“卷”(形容词)了，连排队、吃饭时都在学习，我“卷”(动词)不动了，怎么办？

(2) All my classmates are extremely juan (adj.) — they study even when they are in a queue or having a meal! I’ve no strength left to juan (v.) anymore. What can I do?

“内卷”是一种跟风行为。相信补课并不是每个学生都乐意的事情，但有些学生为了取得更好的成绩，会选择参加课外补习班，其他学生为了缩短自己与这部分同学的差距，只能被迫选择加入补课的“大军”。同理，加班也不是每个职场人都愿意做的事儿，但是一旦有人多加班一小时，其他人便会纷纷效仿，生怕被扣上“不敬业”的帽子。“内卷”时代下，每个人都像一只自转式的陀螺，陷入了不断自我抽打以维持运转的“怪圈”。

Neijuan happens when one feels pressured to follow the herd. Certainly, not all students love to take extracurricular lessons. But when some students choose to take extra tutoring to gain better grades, other students have to follow suit so that they will not be outperformed. Similarly, not every worker is willing to work extra hours, but once some employees are willing to stay in the office one hour longer, others have to join the race lest they are labelled “not industrious enough”. In the age of neijuan, everyone is like a self-whipping top, caught in the trap of constantly whipping himself/herself to keep the spinning on.

“内卷”的主体可以是个体的人，也可以是企业或高校等部门。

The subject of neijuan could be individuals, but it could also be institutions such as corporations or universities.

以楼市为例，一些大牌房企同台竞技，非理性地“抢地”，生怕好地段从指缝中溜走，错失发财的好机会。“内卷”之下，谁都不肯首先低下高傲的头颅，谁也不肯拍拍屁股潇洒地退出竞争，明知很累，却依旧乐此不疲。

Take the real estate business as an example. The top players in the field bid exorbitantly to acquire land lots lest they lose a profitable lot to their rivals. In the context of neijuan, no one is willing to acknowledge defeat and leave the table, even when the cost of bidding is tolling hard on their resources.

再说高校“内卷”，以大学录取通知书为例：南京大学曾发布夜光录取通知书，点亮你心中的无限宇宙；哈尔滨工业大学推出嵌有宝石的录取通知书，给你一份来自理工科的浪漫；东南大学的录取通知书更是“多才多艺”，不仅会发光，还会唱歌。收到这些大学录取通知书的同学们不禁调侃道：“这收到的哪里是录取通知书，简直是惊喜礼盒！”“这年头，连录取通知书都‘卷’起来了！”

When it comes to neijuan in higher education, the acceptance letters issued by universities provide a case in point. Nanjing University once issued a luminous acceptance letter with the words “embrace the boundless universe in your heart”. Harbin Institute of Technology boasted acceptance letters decorated with gemstones, displaying a unique form of romanticism of a technology college. The acceptance letter from Southeast University is even more versatile: it can sing as well as shine in the dark. Lucky students who have received such luxury acceptance letters joked: “Who could imagine this is an acceptance letter? It’s a surprise gift indeed!” “Nowadays even acceptance letters have to juan themselves!”

然而，惊掉下巴的远远不只录取通知书，中秋月饼也成了跨界的“内卷”高手。谁说月饼只能由食品企业和饭店推出？如今，各大学校、医院和博物馆都纷纷制作独具特色、造型别致的月饼。北京航空航天大学推出了刻有别致飞行器图案的月饼，南京市中医院秘制了含有中药配料的养生月饼，故宫博物院设计出以四方灵兽(青龙、白虎、朱雀、玄武)环绕明月为主题的文创月饼······越来越多有创意、有内涵、有文化的月饼走进了百姓家中。

Not only can acceptance letters blow one’s mind, but even the Mid-autumn mooncakes also become a contesting ground of neijuan, with new contestants from fields other than the food industry. Today, universities, hospitals, and museums are all new players in the mooncake-making business and they each produce specially designed mooncakes with the institution’s signature. Beihang University launched a mooncake with aircraft patterns. Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine produced mooncakes made from traditional Chinese medicine that boast health benefits. The Palace Museum launched a mooncake box displaying the pattern of the four mythic creatures — the Green Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise — surrounding the moon from east, west, south and north… More and more innovatively designed mooncakes steeped in cultural motifs are entering the market.

形形色色的“内卷”背后，是市场竞争、相互攀比和扭曲心态在作祟。人们不禁要问：“何必让自己这么累呢？普通一点儿有什么不好？”是啊，色彩斑斓的世界需要多一些富有创意、创新的个性化生活，少一些雷同、盲从的“内卷”。

The driving forces behind neijuan in various fields are commercial incentives and a warped mentality of competitionism. One can’t help but ask: Why engage oneself in this ceaseless competition? Is it really so bad to dare to be ordinary? Indeed, a better, more colorful world needs more innovative and individual lifestyles and less blind copying and neijuan.

更多精彩内容，欢迎访问《孔子学院》官网获取。

地址：https://ci.cn/xwzx/cbw

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作者：钱    铨 Qian Quan

翻译：符梦醒 Fu Mengxing

供图：视觉中国 VCG.COM

          哈尔滨工业大学 Harbin Institute of Technology

          东南大学 Southeast University

          故宫博物院 The Palace Museum

          北京航空航天大学 Beihang University

美术编辑：刘美洋（实习）

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