To understand work culture in China, start with a number: 996.
It’s shorthand for the grueling schedule that has become the norm at many Chinese firms: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
The term originated in the technology sector around five years ago, when the country’s nascent internet companies were racing to compete with Silicon Valley. At first, workers were willing to trade their free time for overtime pay and the promise of helping China match the West.
China’s economy has grown into the second-largest in the world. Tech behemoths like Alibaba, Huawei and ByteDance, which owns TikTok, are household names. But recently, more tech workers are resisting the at-all-costs culture.
Some in China’s working class dismiss the complaints as elite griping; after all, tech workers are highly paid and educated. But the debate also offers a window into the country’s economy more broadly, and the expectations of its young people.
Improving work-life balance
The first major pushback to 996 came in 2019, as China’s economic growth slowed and tech workers began questioning their work conditions. Online protests followed, but the movement faded under government censorship.
This year, 996 shot back into the news after two workers died at Pinduoduo, an e-commerce giant. Officials promised to investigate working conditions, although it’s not clear what — if anything — has come of that.
Since then, some companies have taken steps to improve work-life balance. Kuaishou, a short-video app, in July ended a policy requiring its staff to work on weekends twice a month. One division of Tencent began encouraging workers to go home at 6 p.m. — though only on Wednesdays.
‘Lie flat’
The pushback to 996 also reflects the hopes and anxieties of China’s young people.
Many are willing to endure the working conditions because of the competitiveness of the job market. The number of college graduates in China rose by 73 percent in the past decade, a stunning achievement for a country that had fewer than 3.5 million university students in 1997. As a result, more people are competing for a limited pool of white-collar jobs, as I wrote earlier this year.
But it’s also clear that many are sick of the rat race. Some Gen Zers have turned to reading Mao Zedong’s writings on communism to rage against capitalist exploitation. An online craze this year called on young people to “tangping,” or “lie flat” — essentially, to opt out, as my colleague Elsie Chen has written.
The Chinese Communist Party sees the burnout and the threat it poses to economic growth. On the one hand, it has promised to better support college graduates in their job hunt. But it has also censored discussions of tangping.
Where gig workers fit in
What began as a conversation about tech companies’ treatment of elite workers has expanded to include lower-skilled workers, especially gig laborers.
Middle-class Chinese people have increasingly shown solidarity with those workers. Last year, when package couriers went on strike before a major shopping holiday, many on social media cheered them on.
In some ways, the new awareness mirrors the backlash against tech companies in the U.S. But it has also run up against uniquely Chinese issues of censorship. Just as with the college graduates, the government has promised more protections for gig workers. But earlier this year, officials arrested a well-known delivery worker who had tried to organize his fellow workers.
Vivian Wang is a China correspondent for The Times.
THE LATEST NEWS
The Virus
More than one million vaccine doses have gone to waste in the U.S.
Coronavirus infections from the Delta variant and a seasonal flulike illness are rising among children.
Short on doses and struggling to deliver them: This is where Covax, the global vaccination program, went wrong.
The White House is enlisting YouTube and TikTok personalities to persuade young people to get vaccinated.
Politics
Senators finished writing a 2,702-page bipartisan infrastructure bill. It could pass within days.
Hundreds of climate scientists left the government during the Trump administration. Many of their jobs are still vacant, slowing President Biden’s climate agenda.
Tokyo Olympics
Canada beat the U.S. women’s soccer team, 1-0, in a semifinal.
Jade Carey of the U.S. won gold on the floor exercise. Simone Biles is planning to compete in the balance beam tomorrow.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the women’s 100-meter hurdles. And here’s how Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy won gold in the men’s 100-meter dash.
Poland offered asylum to a Belarusian sprinter who sought protection out of fear of being jailed at home after criticizing her coaches.
A bronze for $3,750, a gold for $83,000: Some former Olympians have sold their medals.
Other Big Stories
Zoom agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the company violated users’ privacy.
In 2018, a singer performed at a rally supporting a pro-democracy candidate in Hong Kong. Today, officials arrested him.
President Kais Saied of Tunisia, who suspended Parliament last week, said in an interview with The Times that he was not aiming to “start a career as a dictator.”
Four years after a white supremacist march, Charlottesville, Va., is reconsidering its zoning rules to encourage construction of more affordable housing.
Six months after Myanmar’s military coup, the top general said the junta would remain in charge for at least two more years.
New York City has begun pushing homeless people off the streets of Manhattan. Some say they have nowhere to go.
Opinions
Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss infrastructure and the Olympics.
Use science, not anecdotes, to study unidentified aerial phenomena, Harvard’s Avi Loeb writes in Scientific American.
MORNING READS
Business casual: Wall Street firms are relaxing their dress codes.
Quiz time: The average score of our latest news quiz is 7.3. What’s yours?
A Times classic: Here’s the best exercise for aging muscles.
Lives Lived: Frenchy Cannoli spent nearly two decades wandering the globe to master the secrets of making hashish, and taught others what he learned. He died at 64.
ARTS AND IDEAS
A comic book boom in France
This May, the French government introduced an app that gave 300 euros — roughly $350 — to every 18-year-old in the country. The goal was to guide teenagers toward more highbrow art, using the money for cultural items — things like books, theater tickets, museum passes, records and art supplies.
So far, many of France’s teenagers have flocked to manga, a type of Japanese comic book, Aurelien Breeden reports in The Times. Books represented over 75 percent of all purchases made through the app, called Culture Pass, and roughly two-thirds of the books were manga.
Jean-Michel Tobelem, a professor who specializes in the economics of culture, said the tendency toward mass media was not necessarily a bad thing. “You can enter Korean culture through K-Pop and then discover that there is a whole cinema, a literature, painters and composers that go with it.”
Still, Tobelem said, the app gives few incentives for young people to engage with “works that are more demanding on an artistic level.”
Gabriel Tiné, a student in Paris who has spent over 200 euros of his pass at a local record store, is a fan of the initiative. “I wouldn’t say no to attending a jazz concert or something like that,” he said. “What’s interesting is that each person can do what they want with it.” — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
Cumin, chile and Sichuan peppercorns are the stars of this bold tofu stir-fry.
What to Watch
Stream a deadpan Moroccan comedy, a nail-biting Indian crime thriller and more international films.
Anatomy of a Scene
See how the director David Lowery crafted this ethereal scene in “The Green Knight,” an adaptation of a 14th-century poem starring Dev Patel.
What to Read
“My Policeman,” the 2012 novel that inspired Harry Styles and Emma Corrin’s coming film, is “less a love triangle than a battle of dueling guitars.”
Now Time to Play
The pangram from Friday’s Spelling Bee was polygonal. Here is today’s puzzle — or you can play online.
Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Clutter (four letters).
If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here.
David Leonhardt is off until Tuesday, Aug. 24. See you tomorrow.
P.S. A hidden haiku from a recent Times movie review: “Bad things happen and / it’s somebody’s fault, but it’s / all so very vague.”
An update: Friday’s newsletter recommended not using a Keurig coffee maker if you care about the planet. Wirecutter has since learned that Keurig has made its K-Cup pods more environmentally friendly.
Here’s today’s print front page.
“The Daily” is about the pandemic. On the Book Review podcast, The Times’s Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang talk about Facebook. “Sway” features Ken Burns.
Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at [email protected].
Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » 12-Hour Days, Six Days a Week
12-Hour Days, Six Days a Week
To understand work culture in China, start with a number: 996.
It’s shorthand for the grueling schedule that has become the norm at many Chinese firms: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
The term originated in the technology sector around five years ago, when the country’s nascent internet companies were racing to compete with Silicon Valley. At first, workers were willing to trade their free time for overtime pay and the promise of helping China match the West.
China’s economy has grown into the second-largest in the world. Tech behemoths like Alibaba, Huawei and ByteDance, which owns TikTok, are household names. But recently, more tech workers are resisting the at-all-costs culture.
Some in China’s working class dismiss the complaints as elite griping; after all, tech workers are highly paid and educated. But the debate also offers a window into the country’s economy more broadly, and the expectations of its young people.
Improving work-life balance
The first major pushback to 996 came in 2019, as China’s economic growth slowed and tech workers began questioning their work conditions. Online protests followed, but the movement faded under government censorship.
This year, 996 shot back into the news after two workers died at Pinduoduo, an e-commerce giant. Officials promised to investigate working conditions, although it’s not clear what — if anything — has come of that.
Since then, some companies have taken steps to improve work-life balance. Kuaishou, a short-video app, in July ended a policy requiring its staff to work on weekends twice a month. One division of Tencent began encouraging workers to go home at 6 p.m. — though only on Wednesdays.
‘Lie flat’
The pushback to 996 also reflects the hopes and anxieties of China’s young people.
Many are willing to endure the working conditions because of the competitiveness of the job market. The number of college graduates in China rose by 73 percent in the past decade, a stunning achievement for a country that had fewer than 3.5 million university students in 1997. As a result, more people are competing for a limited pool of white-collar jobs, as I wrote earlier this year.
But it’s also clear that many are sick of the rat race. Some Gen Zers have turned to reading Mao Zedong’s writings on communism to rage against capitalist exploitation. An online craze this year called on young people to “tangping,” or “lie flat” — essentially, to opt out, as my colleague Elsie Chen has written.
The Chinese Communist Party sees the burnout and the threat it poses to economic growth. On the one hand, it has promised to better support college graduates in their job hunt. But it has also censored discussions of tangping.
Where gig workers fit in
What began as a conversation about tech companies’ treatment of elite workers has expanded to include lower-skilled workers, especially gig laborers.
Middle-class Chinese people have increasingly shown solidarity with those workers. Last year, when package couriers went on strike before a major shopping holiday, many on social media cheered them on.
In some ways, the new awareness mirrors the backlash against tech companies in the U.S. But it has also run up against uniquely Chinese issues of censorship. Just as with the college graduates, the government has promised more protections for gig workers. But earlier this year, officials arrested a well-known delivery worker who had tried to organize his fellow workers.
Vivian Wang is a China correspondent for The Times.
THE LATEST NEWS
The Virus
More than one million vaccine doses have gone to waste in the U.S.
Coronavirus infections from the Delta variant and a seasonal flulike illness are rising among children.
Short on doses and struggling to deliver them: This is where Covax, the global vaccination program, went wrong.
The White House is enlisting YouTube and TikTok personalities to persuade young people to get vaccinated.
Politics
Senators finished writing a 2,702-page bipartisan infrastructure bill. It could pass within days.
Hundreds of climate scientists left the government during the Trump administration. Many of their jobs are still vacant, slowing President Biden’s climate agenda.
Tokyo Olympics
Canada beat the U.S. women’s soccer team, 1-0, in a semifinal.
Jade Carey of the U.S. won gold on the floor exercise. Simone Biles is planning to compete in the balance beam tomorrow.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the women’s 100-meter hurdles. And here’s how Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy won gold in the men’s 100-meter dash.
Poland offered asylum to a Belarusian sprinter who sought protection out of fear of being jailed at home after criticizing her coaches.
A bronze for $3,750, a gold for $83,000: Some former Olympians have sold their medals.
Other Big Stories
Zoom agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the company violated users’ privacy.
In 2018, a singer performed at a rally supporting a pro-democracy candidate in Hong Kong. Today, officials arrested him.
President Kais Saied of Tunisia, who suspended Parliament last week, said in an interview with The Times that he was not aiming to “start a career as a dictator.”
Four years after a white supremacist march, Charlottesville, Va., is reconsidering its zoning rules to encourage construction of more affordable housing.
Six months after Myanmar’s military coup, the top general said the junta would remain in charge for at least two more years.
New York City has begun pushing homeless people off the streets of Manhattan. Some say they have nowhere to go.
Opinions
Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss infrastructure and the Olympics.
Use science, not anecdotes, to study unidentified aerial phenomena, Harvard’s Avi Loeb writes in Scientific American.
MORNING READS
Business casual: Wall Street firms are relaxing their dress codes.
Quiz time: The average score of our latest news quiz is 7.3. What’s yours?
A Times classic: Here’s the best exercise for aging muscles.
Lives Lived: Frenchy Cannoli spent nearly two decades wandering the globe to master the secrets of making hashish, and taught others what he learned. He died at 64.
ARTS AND IDEAS
A comic book boom in France
This May, the French government introduced an app that gave 300 euros — roughly $350 — to every 18-year-old in the country. The goal was to guide teenagers toward more highbrow art, using the money for cultural items — things like books, theater tickets, museum passes, records and art supplies.
So far, many of France’s teenagers have flocked to manga, a type of Japanese comic book, Aurelien Breeden reports in The Times. Books represented over 75 percent of all purchases made through the app, called Culture Pass, and roughly two-thirds of the books were manga.
Jean-Michel Tobelem, a professor who specializes in the economics of culture, said the tendency toward mass media was not necessarily a bad thing. “You can enter Korean culture through K-Pop and then discover that there is a whole cinema, a literature, painters and composers that go with it.”
Still, Tobelem said, the app gives few incentives for young people to engage with “works that are more demanding on an artistic level.”
Gabriel Tiné, a student in Paris who has spent over 200 euros of his pass at a local record store, is a fan of the initiative. “I wouldn’t say no to attending a jazz concert or something like that,” he said. “What’s interesting is that each person can do what they want with it.” — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
Cumin, chile and Sichuan peppercorns are the stars of this bold tofu stir-fry.
What to Watch
Stream a deadpan Moroccan comedy, a nail-biting Indian crime thriller and more international films.
Anatomy of a Scene
See how the director David Lowery crafted this ethereal scene in “The Green Knight,” an adaptation of a 14th-century poem starring Dev Patel.
What to Read
“My Policeman,” the 2012 novel that inspired Harry Styles and Emma Corrin’s coming film, is “less a love triangle than a battle of dueling guitars.”
Now Time to Play
The pangram from Friday’s Spelling Bee was polygonal. Here is today’s puzzle — or you can play online.
Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Clutter (four letters).
If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here.
David Leonhardt is off until Tuesday, Aug. 24. See you tomorrow.
P.S. A hidden haiku from a recent Times movie review: “Bad things happen and / it’s somebody’s fault, but it’s / all so very vague.”
An update: Friday’s newsletter recommended not using a Keurig coffee maker if you care about the planet. Wirecutter has since learned that Keurig has made its K-Cup pods more environmentally friendly.
Here’s today’s print front page.
“The Daily” is about the pandemic. On the Book Review podcast, The Times’s Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang talk about Facebook. “Sway” features Ken Burns.
Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at [email protected].
Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
Source: Read Full Article