“内卷”是什么意思？
What does 内卷 (involution) mean?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
2020年9月，网上开始流传一张照片：一个清华大学的学生骑着自行车，自行车前面放着一台打开的电脑，他一边骑车一边用电脑。很多人看了以后又好笑又佩服，把这样的学生叫作“卷王”。
从那以后，“内卷”这个词就到处都是了。那年年底，它还被选进了“2020年十大流行语”。
那么，“内卷”到底是什么意思？最好懂的例子是电影院。大家本来都坐着看电影。前面有一个人站了起来，看得更清楚了。后面的人看不见，只好也站起来。很快，整个电影院的人都站着看。结果呢？谁也没有比原来看得更清楚，可是每个人都更累了。
这就是“内卷”：大家付出的越来越多，得到的却没有变多。比如老师要求写五千字的论文，有人写了一万字；下一次，大家都写一万字，可是成绩最好的人，还是那么多。
其实，这个词本来是一个学术词，是从英语的involution翻译过来的。上个世纪六十年代，美国学者格尔茨研究印度尼西亚爪哇岛的农业。他发现，那里的人口越来越多，农民在同样的稻田里付出的劳动也越来越多，可是农业一直没有真正的发展。他把这种情况叫作involution。
后来，这个词从大学生的生活进入了各行各业。在公司里，别人加班到九点，你就不好意思六点下班。家长给孩子报了三个补习班，别的家长就报五个。网上也有了很多新说法：太努力的人叫“卷王”，不想再竞争的人说“我不卷了”，看见朋友太拼，就劝他一句“别卷了”。
有意思的是，这几年，这个词还进入了经济新闻。一些公司为了多卖东西，价格越降越低，最后谁都赚不到钱。政府也开始提“反内卷”，希望减少这种不健康的竞争。
所以，下次你在地铁上看见有人一边吃早饭，一边看工作邮件，一边背单词，你就可以小声说一句：“太卷了吧。”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 台 | tái | station (radio, TV) |
| 好笑 | hǎoxiào | funny; laughable |
| 叫作 | jiàozuò | to be called; to be known as |
| 年底 | niándǐ | end of the year |
| 例子 | lìzi | example; instance |
| 只好 | zhíhǎo | to have no choice but to; to be forced to |
| 整个 | zhěnggè | whole; entire |
| 结果 | jiéguǒ | as a result; in the end; result; outcome |
| 翻译 | fānyì | translation; to translate; to interpret |
| 世纪 | shìjì | century |
| 研究 | yánjiū | research; to study; to research |
| 同样 | tóngyàng | equally; likewise; same; similar |
English (for the teacher)
In September 2020, a photo began spreading online: a Tsinghua University student riding a bike, with an open laptop propped on the front, using the computer as he rode. Lots of people found it both funny and impressive, and started calling students like him “Kings of Involution”.
From then on, the word “involution” was everywhere. At the end of that year, it was even picked as one of the “Top Ten Buzzwords of 2020”.
So what does “involution” actually mean? The easiest example is a cinema. Everyone starts out sitting down to watch the film. Then someone at the front stands up and gets a better view. The people behind can't see, so they have to stand up too. Soon the whole cinema is watching on its feet. And the result? Nobody sees any better than before, but everyone is more tired.
That's “involution”: everyone puts in more and more, but gets no more back. Say the teacher asks for a five-thousand-character paper and someone writes ten thousand; next time everyone writes ten thousand, but the number of people with the top marks stays the same.
In fact, the word started out as an academic term, translated from the English “involution”. In the 1960s, the American scholar Geertz studied farming on the island of Java in Indonesia. He found that as the population grew, farmers did more and more work in the same rice fields, yet farming never really developed. He called this situation “involution”.
Later, the word moved from student life into every line of work. At a company, if everyone else works overtime until nine, you feel awkward leaving at six. If one parent signs their child up for three cram classes, the other parents sign theirs up for five. The internet came up with lots of new expressions, too: someone who tries way too hard is a “King of Involution”, someone who doesn't want to compete any more says “I'm not rolling any more”, and when a friend is pushing too hard, you tell them “Stop rolling”.
Interestingly, in the last few years the word has even made it into economic news. To sell more, some companies cut prices lower and lower, until in the end nobody makes any money. The government has started talking about “anti-involution” too, hoping to reduce this unhealthy kind of competition.
So next time you see someone on the subway eating breakfast, reading work emails and memorising vocabulary all at once, you can say quietly: “That's way too much rolling.”