Why Chinese Students study so hard

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Chinese students are often praised for their work ethic, but that's not the only reason why they study hard.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:43 Involution, despair, and the making out game
4:36 ty Surfshark
5:48 The making out game (cont)
9:16 Extreme competition and its impact on student life
21:36 Lying flat and the 996 work week
28:09 Conclusion

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Sources referenced
For this topic, I used a combination of Chinese and English sources, and I've split them out so it's easier to read. Unfortunately, most of the Chinese articles below do not have English translations :(

English sources
Barclay, B. 2022. Involution: The Generation Turning Inward and Away From Xi’s Chinese Dream. Asia Society. [online] Available at: https://asiasociety.org/policy-instit...

China launches education industry reforms, November 2021. [online] New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Available at: https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/mfa...

‘Involution, Acceleration and the “Making-Out” Game of the Contemporary Chinese Society’ (2021) Translated by M. Jha. Institute of Chinese Studies Dehli. [Online] Available at: https://www.icsin.org/uploads/2021/09...

Li, J. 2021. China will teach Xi Jinping Thought to schoolchildren. Quartz.[online] Available at: https://qz.com/2051550/china-will-tea...

Liu, Y.L. 2021. China’s ‘Involuted’ Generation. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul....

Nast, C. 2022. The Larger Meaning of China’s Crackdown on School Tutoring. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...

Xi Jinping thought added into curriculum: Ministry of Education, 2021. Global Times. [online] Available at: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/20210...

Yip, W. 2021. China steps in to regulate brutal ’996’ work culture. BBC News. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-c...

Chinese sources
F Wang 王凡 2021. Chinese youth are torn between 'Involution' and 'Lying flat' “内卷”与“躺平”之间挣扎的中国年轻人 BBC 中文 BBC Chinese. https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chi...

J.J Xu, Z.J Guo, 徐菁菁、郭子介, 2020. 'When GPA is everything: The Prisoner's Dilemma encountered by youth in China's top universities' 绩点为王：中国顶尖高校年轻人的囚徒困境 Sanlian Life Weekly 三联生活周刊, archived via Sohu https://www.sohu.com/a/427283839_105067

The Managers of education: The parents and students who become "involuted" under the pressures of education! 教育经纪人：教育焦虑下，“被内卷”的父母和孩子们! Zhihu 知乎 https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/352094408

Other sources:
Involution analogy made to watching a movie while standing up from TV series "A Love for Dilemma" (小舍得)
VICE Asia's coverage on the 996, really insightful video:    • The Extreme 996 Work Culture in China  

BGM
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