Everyone's caught in the rat race — working overtime until midnight doesn't even help.
Tips
culture
内卷 became one of China's most viral buzzwords around 2020, describing the exhausting cycle of overwork and hyper-competition where everyone works harder but no one actually gets ahead. Originally an anthropology term (involution).
usage
The short form 内卷 (nèijuǎn) is much more common in daily use. 卷 alone is used as a verb/adjective: 太卷了 (it's so competitive). The opposite is 躺平 (lying flat = opting out of the rat race).
