In 2020, Chinese urbanites are contemplating whether all this hard work really makes life better. Worse even,it may well be making things harder for everyone, but there doesn't seem to be a way out. 2020年,中国市民在思考努力工作是不是真的值得。其实,努力工作适得其反,但似乎这种困境无法解决。
A prevalent sense of being stuck in an ever so draining rat race where everyone loses has given rise to a new buzzword: neijuan (involution). “内卷”在这样的社会环境下流行起来,所有人都深感自己被困在一种无意义竞争的恶性循环中,没有人能够获益。
Today, the word is used broadly to convey a general feeling of defeat, when the purpose of competition is to eliminate in a zero-sum game. 现在,内卷这个词被人们用来表达一种在零和游戏中竞争变得毫无意义的挫败感。
📝知识点 1 urbanite[ˈɜːrbənaɪt] 都市人 2 contemplate [ˈkɑːntəmpleɪt] 沉思 3 a way out 出路 4 prevalent [ˈprevələnt] 流行的 5 rat race 无意义的竞争 6 buzzword [ˈbʌzwɜːrd] 流行词 7 convey [kənˈveɪ] 传达 8 eliminate [ɪˈlɪmɪneɪt] 消除 9 zero-sum game零和游戏