Updated July 2026
What does 内卷 mean?
内卷 (nèi juǎn) means the rat race / cutthroat grind in work Chinese slang. Pointless, exhausting competition where everyone works harder and harder just to stay in the same place — the rat race with no payoff. Literally, it means "inward-rolling / involution".
Opposite / pairs with
Character breakdown
inward; internal
to roll up; curl
Hear it explained
A 30-second take on 内卷 — what it means, where it came from, and how to use it.
Picture everyone in a class studying harder just so nobody falls behind, and in the end nobody actually gets ahead. That's 内卷, nèi juǎn — involution, a rat race with no prize. 公司加班太严重了，卷得我喘不过气. Maximum effort, zero payoff.
Example
公司加班太严重了，卷得我喘不过气。
Gōngsī jiābān tài yánzhòng le, juǎn de wǒ chuǎn bù guò qì.
The overtime here is brutal — the grind is suffocating.
What 内卷 goes with
Where 内卷 comes from
Borrowed from the anthropology term "involution". It went viral around 2020 among students and white-collar workers and is now everyday vocabulary.
Related slang
Opting out of the grind — refusing to overwork, over-compete, or chase society's expectations. A quiet protest against 内卷.
Deliberately letting things go to ruin — when a situation is already hopeless, you stop trying entirely. More nihilistic than 躺平.
The overachiever who out-grinds everyone — staying latest, doing the most, dragging the bar up for the whole team. The champion of 内卷.
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