Involution is a highly discussed term in recent years. Many of us have a mantra: "You can't win if you roll, and you can't lie flat. Forget it, let's roll." The word involution is popular in East Asia, such as "Chicken Baby" in China, "Social Animals" in Japan and "College Entrance Examination" in South Korea.
So what other reasons lead to the higher participation of East Asian countries than Europe and America? The following combines my understanding and specifically talks about the reasons:
First, the influence of Confucian culture on East Asian countries.
China, Japan and South Korea are all deeply influenced by Confucian culture in history. Confucian culture emphasizes "joining the WTO" and "everything is inferior, only reading is high". People in the Confucian cultural circle always think that everyone is doing well, so I must be better than most people, especially in education.
For example, in China, in the past two years, there were 985 resumes on the friends corner in the park, 180, 30 years old+... Age gradually became an indicator, urging marriage, having children, the countdown clock, studying hard, doing problems, and jumping ship all the way, but only picking one burden after another. Moreover, when we reach the age of teaching ancient poetry, we have to cram school, take high school exams, go to college, take postgraduate entrance examinations, take exams and compile. The 35-year-old workplace is a watershed, which makes us have to change from childhood to adulthood.
Compared with Europe and America, I have a college classmate studying in Britain. According to her, all the students around her are of this age, and many students in the apartment will study several undergraduate courses. If you don't like it, change it, just like playing. You can abandon your studies and change careers, you can suddenly go back to get married in the middle of your studies, or you can go back to school when you feel unhappy at work in middle age. Nothing strange. Everything's fine. There seems to be no definition of "how old you should be" in their eyes. No longer framed by the concept of age, which means that you can make any choice you like.
Therefore, in fact, from the cultural point of view, we can see the difference between the involution of East Asia and the relaxation of European and American countries.
Second, the social welfare guarantee mechanism is not as sound as that of European and American countries.
The wealth and GDP income originally accumulated in Europe and America are enough to support the high welfare system in Europe and America. Compared with this high welfare system in Europe and America, even the developed economies in East Asia such as South Korea and Japan are far behind, and the national life is under great pressure. Even retired people in their eighties still need to rent and deliver meals to earn their living expenses, because the finances of these countries can hardly support the welfare of Europe and the United States, and people's lives are much more difficult.
For example, the current pension crisis in Japan can only be alleviated by extending the retirement age, and even some experts have recently called on the elderly to commit suicide. Because the social welfare guarantee mechanism is not as perfect as that in Europe and America, and influenced by Confucianism, East Asians pay more attention to their families, and almost always do their best to provide support for the next generation, which will naturally become more involved. It's really a lifetime, and there are really too few people who retire when they are old.
Third, the impact of the competitive environment.
Take China as an example. In recent years, the number of national college entrance examinations has remained at around 9 9- 10/00000, and the admission rate will reach 90.34% in 2020. By 2023, the number of graduates is expected to be11580,000.
After a large number of college students graduate, their academic qualifications naturally depreciate, which is why it is difficult for ordinary undergraduates to find satisfactory jobs in recent years. The academic qualifications of 265,438+065,438+0,985 are barely a stepping stone for some units. Obviously, good jobs are limited, such as teachers, and a small number of salaries and benefits greatly exceed those outside the system, some positions in large factories and a small number of positions in foreign companies. As the competition becomes more and more full, the competition for jobs will certainly become more intense, not only in terms of academic qualifications, but also in other aspects. Full competition will make the paper more serious.
The above is my view that East Asian countries are more involved than European and American countries. Of course, each country has its own basic national conditions and actual conditions, which need to be fully understood.