"Mockupation" — Phrase of the Week
A new word for an unusual trend emerging in China’s job market
Our phrase of the week is: “mockupation” (假装上班 jiǎ zhuāng shàng bān)
Context
China’s job market has never been more competitive.
Youth unemployment is at around 19%, with a record number of “unfinished kids” (烂尾哇) chasing a shrinking pool of jobs. The gap between finishing university and finding work has become a painful process of “removing the long gown of Kong Yiji” (脱下孔乙己的长衫).
In tech, meanwhile, layoffs of mid-level and senior staff are on the rise, as their roles are “optimised” (优化) and they are “replaced and eliminated” (汰换) by AI.
It’s in this context that a surprising new trend has been emerging in China’s employment landscape. There’s no official English name for it yet. So we came up with one:
The pinnacle of professionalism might just be the ability to stay on duty when you have lost your job.
Their commitment has given birth to a new type of company that is popping up all across the country: Mockupation startups.
上班的最高境界是什么？或许是：现实已无班可上，内心却始终”在岗”。最近全国各地冒出来了一批新的公司：假装上班公司。
And with that, we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
“Mockupation” is our translation of a newly coined Chinese phrase which combines these two phrases: “to pretend” (假装 jiǎzhuāng), and “to go to work” (上班 shàngbān).
This phrase began surfacing in late 2024, as videos of people documenting their mock occupations spread across Chinese social media.
By early 2025 “mockupation companies” (假装上班公司) were springing up in cities across China.
They provide office space for people to be at their pretend jobs — who have been out of work, or never managed to find a job in the first place.
Mockupation companies look any normal office, but the people in there are not employees, they are paying to be there. A small desk goes for as little as 100 yuan a month, a larger one for 150.
For the people using these mockupation companies, they get structure, routine, and a psychological anchor of people “coming together to support each other” (抱团取暖).
Which, in the current job market in China, is a much needed relief from the otherwise grim outlook.
For some people, it’s got so bad it feels better to pretend like they have a job and avoid the social stigma of being out of work.
Which is why we translate this week’s phrase as “mockupation”.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource which helps you bridge the gap to real-world fluency in Mandarin, stay informed about China, and communicate with confidence—all through weekly immersion in real news. Subscribe for free here.
