「卫报」“内卷”用英语怎么说？

《卫报》（The Guardian）近日刊登一篇文章（What is neijuan, and why is China worried about it?）提到“内卷”。

我们从中看看“内卷”用英语怎么说？先看文章原文：

What is neijuan, and why is China worried about it?

The buzzword – which went viral after a student was filmed working on his laptop while riding his bicycle – reflects a mix of competitiveness and hopelessness amid China’s slowing economy

一名学生骑自行车时在笔记本电脑上工作的视频在网上疯传，由此引发的这个热词反映出在中国经济放缓背景下，人们既竞争激烈又感到无望的复杂心态。（注：清华大学学堂路一学生边骑车边操作笔记本电脑）

On the Chinese internet, the country’s current predicament – slowing economic growth, a falling birthrate, a meagre social safety net, increasing isolation on the world stage – is often expressed through buzzwords. There is tangping, or “lying flat”, a term used to describe the young generation of Chinese who are choosing to chill out rather than hustle in China’s high-pressure economy. There is runxue, or “run philosophy”, which refers to the determination of large numbers of people to emigrate. Recently, “revenge against society” attacks – random incidents of violence that have claimed dozens of lives – have sparked particular concern. And there is also neijuan, or “involution”, a term used to describe the feeling of diminishing returns in China’s social contract.

在中国互联网上，人们经常用一些网络热词来表达当前的困境——经济增长放缓、生育率下降、社会保障不足、国际地位日益孤立。比如 “躺平”，用来形容年轻一代在中国高压经济环境下选择放松而非拼搏；还有 “润学”，指代大量民众决心移民海外的现象。最近，”报复社会”式无差别袭击事件夺去数十条生命，引发特别关注。此外还有 “内卷”，用来描述中国社会契约中收益递减的感受。

What is neijuan?

Neijuan is the Chinese term for “involution”, a concept from sociology that refers to a society that can no longer evolve, no matter how hard it tries. Applied to the individual, it means that no matter how hard someone works, progress is impossible.

什么是内卷？内卷是英文 “involution” 的中文译法，这个源自社会学的概念指代一个无论如何努力都无法进化的社会。对个人而言，这意味着无论多么努力，都无法取得进步。

In China, the term has been used to describe the feeling of diminishing returns in China’s economy. The characters “nei” and “juan” literally mean rolling inwards. After decades of rapid growth, many Chinese millennials and Gen Z people feel that the opportunities that were available to their parents no longer exist, and that working hard no longer offers guaranteed rewards.

在中国语境下，这个词被用来描述中国经济中收益递减的感受。”内卷”字面意思是向内卷。在经历了数十年的快速发展后，许多中国千禧一代和 Z 世代年轻人觉得，他们父母那一代所拥有的机会已不复存在，努力工作不再能保证获得回报。

Is China worried about neijuan?

Yes. China’s leaders have made it clear that they don’t want the idea of neijuan to catch on more than it already has. In December, top economic policymakers gathered for the annual Central Economic Work Conference, which sets the national economic agenda. According to the readout of the closed-door meeting, the cadres pledged to “rectify ‘involutionary’ competition”. And speaking at Davos in June, China’s premier, Li Qiang, warned against “spiralling ‘involution’” in the world economy.

中国是否担忧内卷？是的。中国领导层明确表示不希望内卷观念继续蔓延。12月，高层经济政策制定者召开年度中央经济工作会议，为国家经济议程定调。会议承诺综合整治“内卷式”竞争。今年6月在达沃斯论坛上，中国总理李强也警告要警惕世界经济出现”螺旋式’内卷'”。

Who is affected by it?

It’s primarily a concept among millennials and generation Z. The latter group has been hit hard by China’s economic difficulties. Youth unemployment hit a record 21.3% in June 2023, after which the government stopped publishing the data. It has since resumed publishing the statistics with a revised methodology. The latest data shows that the jobless rate for urban 16-24-year-olds is 17.1%.

谁受到内卷影响？这主要是千禧一代和 Z 世代的概念。后者在中国经济困境中受创尤其严重。

Neijuan is also increasingly used to describe certain industries. China is investing massively in what it calls “new quality productive forces”, which means focusing more on research and manufacturing in certain hi-tech sectors, such as solar, electric vehicles and batteries. But overproduction, coupled with sanctions from the US and other western markets, has led to a price war in some sectors, hurting their profitability.

“内卷”一词也越来越多地被用来描述某些行业。中国正在大规模投资所谓的”新质生产力”，即更加注重某些高科技领域的研发和制造，如太阳能、电动汽车和电池。但产能过剩，加上美国等西方市场的制裁，导致部分行业陷入价格战，影响了盈利能力。

What are its origins?

Although the term has been around for decades in academic circles, it went viral on China’s internet in 2020. A student from Tsinghua University, one of China’s most elite schools, was filmed riding his bicycle with his laptop open, propped up on the handlebars. Soon he was crowned as “Tsinghua’s involuted king”, and a meme was born.

内卷的由来是什么？虽然这个词在学术圈已存在数十年，但在2020年才在中国互联网上走红。当时一名来自精英学府清华大学的学生骑自行车时，将笔记本电脑架在车把上工作的视频被拍下。他很快被封为”清华卷王”，由此诞生了一个网络梗。

The meme of the involuted king came to represent the perhaps pointlessly intense pressure of China’s rat race, and the impossibility of catching a break. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people felt physically as well as economically trapped.

“卷王”梗代表了中国职场竞争中或许毫无意义的巨大压力，以及无法喘息的困境。

The term was particularly popular in China’s hyper-competitive tech industry. Despite a workforce that is more educated than any previous generation, many graduates have found it difficult to find jobs in profitable sectors. This became even more of a problem when the Chinese government announced its “double reduction” policy in 2021. Designed to ease the pressure on school students, the policy banned for-profit online and offline tutoring, torpedoing a sector that had previously been a major employer of young graduates. One study suggested that 10 million people lost their jobs as a result of the policy.

这个词在中国竞争激烈的科技行业特别流行。尽管现在的劳动力受教育程度比之前任何一代都高，但许多毕业生发现很难在赚钱的行业中找到工作。2021年宣布”双减”政策后，这个问题变得更加突出。该政策旨在减轻学生压力，禁止营利性线上和线下补习，重创了这个曾经是年轻毕业生主要就业渠道的行业。有研究表明，约1000万人因这项政策失业。

阅读完文章后，我们可以看看“内卷”用英语怎么说？

根据《咬文嚼字》，“内卷”或“内卷式”译自英语involution，本是社会学术语，指一种社会或文化模式在发展到一定阶段后停滞不前，或无法转化为更高级模式的现象。但是“内卷”一词爆红后，意思已经和最初的专业内涵不一样，成为中国特色的“内卷”。

involution 本义是“卷入，纠缠，错综复杂”，意思比较晦涩。“内卷”的英文involution已经出现在权威的英文媒体中。

《卫报》用音译neijuan报道国内的“内卷”，用involution补充说明，采用的是中国特色词汇最常见的英译方法——音译+释义：

neijuan, or “involution”, a term used to describe the feeling of diminishing returns in China’s social contract.

此外，文中还列举了其他的替代用词，如：involuted（形容词）， ‘involutionary’ competition ，rat race （激烈的竞争）, hyper-competitive（竞争异常激烈的，名词形式为hypercompetitiveness）。

还提到了“卷王”：The meme of the involuted king came to represent the perhaps pointlessly intense pressure of China’s rat race, and the impossibility of catching a break.（“卷王”梗代表了中国职场竞争中或许毫无意义的巨大压力，以及无法喘息的困境。）

文中提到的 “rectify ‘involutionary’ competition” （综合整治“内卷式”竞争），新华社英文网站和《中国日报China Daily》的用法分别是：address rat-race irrational competition 和rectify “rat-race” style competition。

由此可见，还可以其他常见的英文近义词表达“内卷”，如 cutthroat（竞争激烈的，残酷无情的，不择手段的），cutthroat competition，the cutthroat world of

其他权威外刊/外媒报道“内卷”的例子有：

《外交家》（The Diplomat）杂志提到：

Buzzwords like “lying flat” and “involution” suggest that the connection between hard work and success has been severed in the minds of many young Chinese.

美国《财富》（Fortune）杂志提到：Lying flat and involution are not just online fodder, experts say; symptoms of passive resistance are popping up across Chinese society.

《纽约客》（The New Yorker）杂志刊登了一篇题为 China’s “Involuted” Generation（中国的“内卷”世代）的报道。