I’m proudly translating Discover China by my friend Eric Nie into Spanish (Mexico) and Portuguese (Brazil). Today’s story is a short copywriting essence of Chapter 6. If you’d like to go deeper and explore the full journey, I highly recommend Eric’s book ($9.99): https://ericonchina.com/collections/all
Dear Friends,
It was 10:30 p.m. in Shanghai.
The office building across from my apartment was still glowing. Dozens of young people sat at their desks, typing fast, half-finished takeout beside them.
This is 996.
Nine to nine. Six days a week.
Some call it dedication.
Others call it madness.
But in China, it’s something deeper.
A mindset.
996 began in tech hubs like Hangzhou and Shenzhen, where startups raced to survive brutal competition. Founders once praised it as a blessing — if you can work that hard, you’re lucky to have purpose.
For many young professionals, it didn’t feel like a choice.
It felt like gravity.
To understand 996, you have to go beyond bosses and deadlines.
China carries a long cultural belief: endurance creates progress.
Work isn’t just income.
It’s identity.
Leaving early doesn’t only risk your job — it risks your face, your place in the group, your sense of contribution. When Westerners ask, “Why don’t they just quit?”, they miss that quitting isn’t merely professional.
It’s social.
China rose fast because people moved fast. In forty years, it built skyscrapers, bullet trains, and global tech giants — powered by a generation that believed speed was survival.
But pressure accumulates.
Recently, young people started talking about “involution” — endless internal competition. Others embraced “lying flat,” choosing slower lives over burnout.
The question shifted from productivity to meaning:
What’s the point of building tomorrow if you can’t live today?
A founder once told me:
“We’re not afraid of hard work. We’re afraid of falling behind.”
That sentence captures modern China.
The hunger that built the miracle is now testing its creators.
Things are changing. Some companies offer flexible hours. The government talks about “high-quality growth.” Younger workers ask for time, not just money.
Still, 996 lingers.
Not as policy.
As psychology.
The West asks, “Why do Chinese people work so much?”
China asks, “How else could we have come this far?”
The spirit of 996 built modern China.
The challenge now is learning how to live beyond it — without losing what made it possible.
Cheers,
Augusto
Founder of Expat Eyes on China
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