The phenomenon of extremely long working hours\u2014more than 40 hours per week\u2014exists in both the United States and China. Yet in the U.S., it is mostly confined to a few \u201cbloodsucking\u201d industries, while in China, it permeates nearly every sector of the workforce. One could say that the U.S. lacks a widespread overtime culture, but in China, such a culture indeed exists. Here, I am not talking about overtime as an institutionalized system (like \u201c996\u201d), but rather as a cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long before \u201c996\u201d became a household phrase, I once heard a joke: several Huawei employees got off work and went out for dinner together. After finishing their meal, they didn\u2019t know what to do next, so one suggested, \u201cLet\u2019s go back and work overtime for a bit!\u201d<\/em> The joke reminds us that the greed of capitalists and the weakness of the rule of law may not fully explain the prevalence of excessive working hours. Some workers themselves willingly act like beasts of burden, thus fueling the culture of overwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was a child, I watched a film on television about the Anyuan coal miners\u2019 strike. One scene showed Communist Party members successfully persuading workers to go on strike\u2014only for their march to encounter another group of workers who were demanding overtime. These workers weren\u2019t incited by factory owners or police; they were self-organized. They wanted to extend their hours in order to earn more pay. Of course, as the film continued, even these pro-overtime workers were eventually swayed by Party propaganda and joined the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, in today\u2019s China, workers voluntarily asking for overtime to increase their wages still exists. What\u2019s more shocking is that some workers\u2019 voluntary overtime seems not even driven by material incentives, but rather by habit\u2014as if they had nothing to do outside the workplace. Such people, inadvertently, become accomplices in perpetuating the culture of overwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, we must criticize the phenomenon of extremely long working hours. One of the strongest reasons for this critique comes from recognizing the \u201ctriple role\u201d of a person. First, as a human being<\/strong>, one has private time for family, friendships, hobbies, leisure, or religious practice, among other pursuits. Second, as a citizen<\/strong>, one must fulfill public rights and responsibilities\u2014participating in charities, volunteering, serving as a juror, and so on. Third, as a worker<\/strong>, one has a job to make a living, or in rarer cases, a vocation to which one devotes one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Very few people truly have a vocation. The vast majority merely have jobs. This means that for most people, their work is simply fragmented tasks assigned by an employer. No individual worker is irreplaceable\u2014although together they keep the company running\u2014but from the perspective of the individual, such work carries little objective meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because work often fails to provide meaning, if a person wants to live a meaningful life, they must find that meaning in areas outside of work\u2014in what I broadly call private time<\/strong>. For most people, the meaning of life depends on how they use their private time. When fragmented tasks devoid of objective significance consume the majority of a person\u2019s life, the result is an existence stripped of meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the U.S., many have rallied behind the slogan of \u201cwork-life balance,\u201d resisting the workplace\u2019s ever-expanding encroachment on personal life. But how exactly can we achieve this balance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the formal<\/strong> level, people must firmly establish the awareness that no matter what one does in their private time, this time is sacred and inviolable relative to work. Many Chinese executives naturally assume that employees should always put work first, acting as if they were their workers\u2019 fathers. But employees only open up their working selves to the company; they have no obligation to expose their private lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the substantial<\/strong> level, people must enrich their private time so that it becomes substantial enough to counterbalance work. Clearly, if someone works diligently during office hours but spends their free time in a daze\u2014playing cards, mindlessly gaming on their phone, binge-watching videos, eating, drinking, or chasing celebrities\u2014then when their boss demands their private time, they will hardly have the confidence to resist. Years ago, I often ate at a spicy hot pot restaurant. One day, it was closed. Later, when I mentioned it to an employee, they said: \u201cIf I\u2019d known, I would have come to work anyway. Staying home just means lying in bed playing with my phone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Enriching one\u2019s private time primarily requires effort in several areas: intimate relationships, friendships, socializing, hobbies, leisure, learning, and spirituality<\/strong>. A detailed exploration of these areas would require a book rather than a single essay, so here I can only offer a brief cultural critique of the current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does it look like when someone fails in these areas? In short: unwilling to put effort into love and intimacy, lacking deep friendships, self-identifying as \u201csocially anxious,\u201d having no noteworthy hobbies, unable to play or enjoy leisure. This, broadly speaking, describes the state of life for many people in today\u2019s China. By contrast, while spirituality is not essential, those who cultivate it\u2014through meditation, mindfulness, and other practices\u2014often experience profound transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a young worker goes home after work only to spend the rest of their evening lying in bed scrolling on their phone\u2014even feeling bored themselves\u2014how can they possibly resist the culture of overtime? At a seminar, I once met a UVA professor who said that every Sunday he shuts himself off from the world, refuses to check or reply to emails, and spends the entire day solely with his family. Clearly, when such a person with strong family values encounters a boss trying to seize his personal time, he will defend it to the death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people don\u2019t even know how to \u201cplay\u201d properly. Group tours are a typical example. They require no planning or logistical effort, making them simple\u2014but they also follow a strict schedule, rushing from one site to another, leaving time only for \u201clooking\u201d with the eyes or through a camera, but not for truly experiencing with the heart. Along the way, group tourists may encounter another kind of traveler: someone who parks by a scenic spot, sets up a simple table and chairs, and spends the entire afternoon sipping coffee amidst the view. These two styles aren\u2019t strictly comparable, but if someone only knows \u201ccommando-style\u201d travel and not leisure travel, then clearly they don\u2019t really know how to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many people lack serious hobbies, having only shallow ones. The difference lies in whether one invests real effort and, through that investment, grows as a person. In most cases, celebrity fandom or watching sports can only be considered shallow hobbies. Some fanatical fans may indeed put in enormous effort, but to many discerning observers, such obsession is dangerous\u2014it does not foster growth, but rather makes them unpleasant to others. A serious hobby, by contrast, grants one a proud identity and helps one become better. Think of tech geeks, outdoor enthusiasts, photographers, illustrators, readers, writers, bloggers, even gamers\u2014their dedication during private time makes the world richer and more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In conclusion, we must strive to enrich our own private lives. We must both acknowledge the sacred inviolability of private time in form, and enrich it in substance. Ideally, people should begin in their school years\u2014finding their interests, cultivating intimate relationships, friendships, social skills, leisure, learning, and even spiritual practices\u2014so that by the time they enter the workforce, they already possess the ability to enrich their private time. Only then can we recognize its value and defend it. An empty life, after all, leaves the door wide open for overtime working culture to creep in. To resist it, we must first begin with ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The phenomenon of extremely long working hours\u2014more than 40 hours per week\u2014exists in both the United States and China. Yet in the U.S., it is mostly confined to a few \u201cbloodsucking\u201d industries, while in China, it permeates nearly every sector of the workforce. One could say that the U.S. lacks a widespread overtime culture, but in China, such a culture indeed exists. Here, I am not talking about overtime as an institutionalized system (like \u201c996\u201d), but rather as a cultural phenomenon. Long before \u201c996\u201d became a household phrase, I once heard a joke: several Huawei employees got off work and went out for dinner together. After finishing their meal, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/work-life-balance.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-criticism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/work-life-balance.webp?w=1200&resize=1200,800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/learning-to-smile\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":0},"title":"Learning to Smile","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"12\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Years ago, when haze enveloped many cities in China, we wore N95 masks when we stayed outside. One problem I soon noticed was that we couldn't see each other's expressions on their faces when we wore the masks; if I smiled, others didn't know it, and vice versa. A friend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":99,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/is-china-a-collectivist-society-or-an-atomized-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":1},"title":"Is China a Collectivist Society or an Atomized One?","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"04\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Is China a collectivist society or an atomized one? As I was reading through various academic papers, I noticed some scholars still describe China as a collectivist society, while others have already picked up on its growing atomization. On online forums and insightful blogs, it's rare to find anyone still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Criticism","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/cultural-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i3.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/social-atomisation.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":174,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":2},"title":"The Economic Factors Behind the Conservative Turn in the Mindset of Chinese Youth","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"03\/29\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"As is well known, in the 1990s, a hypothesis became popular among Western politicians and social scientists: if the West supported China\u2019s Reform and Opening-up policies and bolstered China\u2019s economic growth through expanded economic ties, the resulting expansion of the middle class would lead to demands for greater civil rights.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Criticism","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/cultural-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/the-economic-factors-behind-the-conservative-turn-in-the-mindset-of-chinese-youth.png?w=1536&resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/correspondence-between-china-and-the-worlds-mainstream-social-media-from-both-respective\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":3},"title":"Correspondence Between China and the World’s Mainstream Social Media: From Both Respectives","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"01\/15\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"From the World's Perspective: WorldChinaNotesFacebookNoAfter Renren's demise, China no longer has an open, real-name, all-in-one social platformInstagramNoX\/TwitterWeibo\uff08\u5fae\u535a\uff09Weibo's content is semi-closed loop, while X\/Twitter is openMessenger\/WhatsApp\/TelegramWeChat (only chatting part)YouTubeBiliBili\uff08\u54d4\u54e9\u54d4\u54e9\uff09YouTube doesn't have BiliBili's signature pop-up feature, and it has ads. Its 4K videos are free, and YouTube's audience is all-ages, while BiliBili's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":150,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/raising-children-can-be-seen-as-humanitys-most-common-selfless-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":4},"title":"Raising Children Can Be Seen as Humanity\u2019s Most Common Selfless Act","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"10\/25\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever since there have been human beings, we have, like other animals, reproduced without pause. In most cultures, raising children functions almost like an auto-program installed in the brain. Genuine reflection on parenting itself may be largely a modern development, and a scientific understanding of it has only really emerged\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/parenthood-images.jpg?w=1200&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/parenthood-images.jpg?w=1200&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/parenthood-images.jpg?w=1200&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/parenthood-images.jpg?w=1200&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/parenthood-images.jpg?w=1200&resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/eating-while-looking-at-your-phone\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":5},"title":"Eating While Looking at Your Phone","author":"Stephen Leng","date":"09\/13\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One afternoon, I was installing a custom Rom on my phone. Even though it was a 2024 model, it still only had USB 2.0, so data transfer was painfully slow\u2014and I had a lot to back up and restore. Dinner time rolled around and the job still wasn\u2019t done, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/my-img.stephenleng.com\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-05-06-11.15.45-.png?w=1024&resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenleng.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}