In East Asia, the three countries—China, Japan, and South Korea—who is the most “try-hard,”

of course, online talk is unanimous in praising South Korea: it’s always that South Koreans can’t afford houses, can’t afford meat, and can’t afford watermelons,
or that South Korean financial conglomerates/chaebols monopolize everything, so young people can’t see any hope. Next is Japan—anyway, our China is great.
The main contradiction in today’s society has become this: Chinese people think China is really awesome, but as Chinese people living in China,
they can’t see a future—fresh college graduates can’t even find jobs.
When China–Japan relations were still pretty good back then, I heard a joke:
A Japanese foreign company dispatched a leader to its Japanese branch located in Shanghai. Right after this leader arrived at the Shanghai office branch, he told everyone, “I’m a workaholic. I like working overtime. I hope you can keep up with my pace.”
Half a year later, this Japanese expat’s assignment ended. When he was leaving, he said one thing: “Overtime isn’t something you Chinese do like this. I won’t be coming again.”
A place with per capita GDP of three to four ten-thousand US dollars—where the population is only a few tens of millions—
somehow many people think it’s more try-hard than a place with per capita GDP of over ten thousand and 1.4 billion people. Has economics ceased to exist?