This English version may have been machine-generated from the Chinese original and may not convey the original meaning accurately.
Open Your Eyes to a Glitzy Age of Prosperity; Close Them to a Furnace Forging the World
Today’s China, presented before the eyes of the world, is a “prosperous scene” of towering skyscrapers, dazzling lights, magnificent infrastructure, and rapidly changing cities.
But when we shift our gaze from high-rises to the lives of ordinary people, we see another China.
It is a China squeezed by economic pressure, a China struggling to breathe under the weight of employment, mortgages, retirement, education, and the cost of living.
On the same land, two entirely different Chinas are emerging.
One China is being carried by the system;
The other China is being crushed by reality.
One China pursues stability, benefits, and secure government positions;
The other China thinks only about how to keep its job, repay its loans, and support its family.
These are not two countries, yet they increasingly resemble two different worlds.
A China Carried by the System
In government agencies, state-owned enterprises, public institutions, and other relatively stable positions, some people enjoy relatively stable incomes, benefits, and social security.
For them, economic downturns, employment difficulties, and sluggish consumption are more often macroeconomic data in the news.
They care about whether their positions will remain stable, whether their benefits will change, whether their children can receive a better education, and whether they can continue to maintain certainty about their future.
It is not strange that they believe this system is good.
Because for them, this system has indeed given them stability and a sense of security.
This cannot necessarily be reduced to simple hypocrisy.
When a person’s income, housing, healthcare, retirement, children’s education, and even social identity are all deeply tied to a system, it is natural for them to cherish that system more.
Thus, the system itself forms a powerful community of shared interests and security.
Another China Pressed Down by Reality
Yet outside the system, there is also a huge number of ordinary people.
They have no secure government position to rely on, no stable benefits to fall back on, and little capital with which to withstand long-term losses.
In the past, the private economy provided abundant opportunities.
Many ordinary people gradually changed their lives by opening shops, doing business, starting companies, driving freight, engaging in e-commerce, and providing services.
But as economic growth slowed, market competition intensified, and resources and market space in some industries became further concentrated in large institutions and capital, the survival pressures facing many ordinary people began to increase significantly.
As a result, everyone began to “compete to the death.”
Restaurants compete on price;
E-commerce sellers compete for traffic;
Ride-hailing drivers compete with time;
Young people compete over academic credentials, civil service exams, and secure government positions.
It is not that Chinese people have suddenly become lazy.
On the contrary:
Many people are working harder than ever, yet finding it increasingly difficult to receive returns commensurate with their efforts.
On commercial streets, more and more signs read, “Business for Transfer.”
Stores are closing one after another on streets that were once bustling with people.
A friend who runs a business said:
“It’s not that I don’t want to keep going; I simply can’t afford to anymore.”
Rent must be paid, employees must be supported, inventory costs money, platforms take a cut, while consumers’ wallets are growing increasingly empty.
Business owners fear losses, employees fear unemployment, young people fear graduating into unemployment, and the middle class fears declining income and shrinking assets.
Everyone is working hard.
Yet everyone also seems to be growing more and more exhausted.
Why Are People Becoming More Diligent Yet Increasingly Anxious?
This is a question that the entire society deserves to face seriously.
Why is it that in a hardworking nation, so many people work more than ten hours a day and still dare not stop?
Why are young people increasingly afraid to marry, have children, or spend money?
Why is the greatest wish of many people no longer to become wealthy, but simply to “seek stability”?
Because when opportunities in a society cannot expand in tandem, while resources, social protections, and stable positions are all highly scarce, competition changes.
People are no longer competing merely over how to create more wealth.
They are competing over:
Who can secure a safer position.
And so:
If you do not lower your prices, someone else will;
If you do not work overtime, someone else will;
If you do not take the civil service exam, someone else will;
If you do not fight desperately, someone else may push you out.
In the end, everyone becomes trapped in a huge cycle:
Everyone works harder and harder, yet few truly feel that life is becoming easier.
This is the most heartbreaking aspect of “involution.”
Another China Behind the Glitz
Of course, we cannot deny the tremendous changes China has undergone over the past several decades.
Urban construction, technological development, infrastructure, manufacturing, and people’s living standards have all changed enormously.
But the true level of civilization in a country can never be judged merely by how tall its buildings are, how wide its roads are, or how large its GDP is.
It should be judged more by whether:
Ordinary people have dignity;
The vulnerable have protection;
Individuals have the right to choose their own way of life;
Power has limits;
The law can genuinely restrain power;
When an ordinary person is treated unjustly, is there an institution they can rely on?
If these questions remain unresolved, then no matter how magnificent a city is, it cannot conceal the anxiety deep within society.
Because true civilization is not about making a city look prosperous, but about allowing ordinary people living in that city to feel security, dignity, fairness, and hope.
The Most Terrifying Thing for a Society Is Not Poverty, but Losing Hope
Poverty can be changed through development.
Difficulties can be overcome through effort.
But if an ordinary person discovers after years of hard work that:
Their opportunities are becoming fewer,
Upward mobility is becoming increasingly difficult,
The rules are not always fair,
Power lacks genuine constraints,
then what becomes most despairing is no longer how much they earn today.
It is:
“What can I change, no matter how hard I try?”
When more and more people begin to think this way, what a society truly needs to be vigilant about is not any single economic indicator, but the disappearance of hope in people’s hearts.
If a young person believes that effort can change their destiny, they will strive.
If a young person believes that rules can protect their efforts, they will create.
But if they believe that no matter how hard they try, they cannot change their position, they may ultimately choose to lie flat, leave, or even completely lose hope for the future.
This is the deepest crisis facing a society.
What China Truly Needs Is Not Only Strength, but Civilization
Of course, we hope China will become strong.
But even more, we hope China will truly become a civilized country.
Because strength without protection for rights may simply mean a more powerful state machinery;
Wealth without fairness may simply mean greater concentration of wealth;
Prosperity without dignity may still leave ordinary people living in fear.
The China truly worth striving for should be one where:
Power is restrained,
The law stands above power,
Everyone receives basic respect,
Ordinary people have fair opportunities to compete,
Entrepreneurs can operate their businesses without fear,
Workers can gain dignity through their labor,
Children do not have to rely on connections to see hope,
The elderly can retire with dignity,
And an ordinary person, even without connections or power, can believe:
As long as I work honestly and follow the rules, I have the opportunity to live a better life.
That is true civilization.
Open Your Eyes to Glitz; Close Them to Reality
So sometimes, what we see are two Chinas.
One China is being carried by the system;
One China is being pushed by the market;
One China fears losing its vested interests;
The other China fears losing its job.
One China pursues stability;
The other China pursues survival.
One China sees prosperity;
The other China feels pressure.
Open your eyes to a glitzy age of prosperity;
Close them to a furnace forging the world.
But we should not lose hope because of this.
Because the true hope of a nation has never come from grand slogans, but from the pursuit of fairness, freedom, dignity, and a better life by countless ordinary people.
China has endured too much suffering.
This nation with its long and ancient civilization should not remain trapped in an endless cycle of suffering.
What we truly hope for is not merely a China with a stronger economy, but a China that respects people, protects people, safeguards rights, reveres life, and subjects power to restraint.
May the day come when:
The lights in skyscrapers are no longer merely symbols of prosperity;
The neon of the cities no longer conceals the hardships of ordinary people;
Labor can bring dignity;
Effort can be rewarded;
The law can protect the vulnerable;
Power no longer stands above the rules;
Every ordinary person can live with their head held high.
May this nation that has endured so much suffering ultimately emerge from its hellish age.
May China move not only toward prosperity and strength, but truly toward civilization.
May the day come when, upon opening our eyes, we no longer see only glitz;
And when we close them, we can finally fall asleep in peace.