Long working hours are a way of life in China, no matter what the industry.

长时间的工作在中国已经成为一种生活方式，所有行业都难以幸免。

According to one estimate by a researcher at Beijing Normal University, Chinese workers log an average of 2,000-2,200 working hours each year – far higher than their counterparts in the United States (1,790 hours per year), the Netherlands (1,419), Germany (1,371) and even Japan (1,719), according to OECD statistics.

根据北京师范大学的一位研究人员的估测数据，中国的员工每年工作时间平均在2000到2200小时，比美国员工(年均1790小时)，荷兰员工(年均1419小时)，德国员工(1371小时)甚至是日本员工(1719小时)都要长，以上数据来源于经合组织。

Wu, who works in the business and sales team, frequently logs long hours, from 9.30am to 9.30pm. But Wu isn’t complaining.

吴女士，在业务和销售团队工作，经常长时间加班，她的工作时间一般是从早上9点半到晚上9点半，但是她觉得没有什么可抱怨的。

"Everyone wants to finish their work before leaving the office,” Wu says. “People work hard to create their own value. We have a lot of things to do but we don’t have that many employees, so everyone is wearing several hats.”

”每个人都想在下班之前做完他们的工作”她说："每个人都为了实现自己的价值在努力工作，公司事情很多但人手不够，所以每个人都身兼数职"。

In one video that went viral this summer, an amateur Shanghai choir¹ devoted² a tongue-in-cheek song to their status as “overtime³ dogs” – a slang term for white-collar workers – entitled “My Body Is Hollowed Out.”

在今年夏天中国流行的一段视频中，上海一支业余合唱团演唱了一首献给“加班狗”的搞笑歌曲《感觉身体被掏空》，“加班狗”是对白领的谑称。

"Who needs sleep? What a waste of time!” they sing. “Who needs to eat when PowerPoint is my sustenance⁴?”

"谁需要睡觉，多么浪费时间啊；谁想要吃饭，PPT是维他命。"

The workplace culture in China’s start-up scene is even more demanding than in Silicon⁵ Valley, says Gary Rieschel, the US co-founder of Qiming Venture Partners.

中国启明创投公司的美国合伙人雷歇尔认为中国初创科技公司的公司文化比硅谷还要苛刻，

One reason for this, he says, is that for many tech start-ups in China, their business models are not based on a unique idea, but one derived⁶ from somewhere else, either another start-up in China or one in the US.

其中一个原因是，它们的商业模式不是基于独特的创新观点，而是从别的公司或者外国公司那借鉴来的。

This leaves them only two ways to compete—on cost and speed. “And when you’re competing on low cost and speed, there’s really only one culture to be successful, and that’s a 24-7, 365 (day) culture.”

在这种情况下，想要和别人竞争只有两条路：低成本、速度快。在这种思路下运营的公司，想要成功，企业文化只有一条：“一天24小时、一周7天、一年365天上班”。

For many young tech workers, there’s also no semblance⁷ of work-life balance: the job is their life. Many relocate to cities where they don’t have family or friends so they’d rather stay late at the office to make extra money and socialise with colleagues.

对于科技公司的很多年轻员工来说，没有什么平衡工作和生活一说，工作就是生活。很多年轻人到举目无亲的大城市工作，他们在当地没有要好的朋友也没有家人，所以有些人宁愿下了班也在办公室待着，可以多挣点钱还能和同事聊聊天。

"It’s not about working, this is part of their lifestyle. They don’t want to go home, they just want to stay there.”

“这跟工作没关系，这是他们生活方式的一部分，他们不想回家，只是想待在公司里"。

Young people in China today don’t care as much as previous generations about joining a big, established company where they’re jobs are stable but their impact might be marginal. They’re more drawn⁸ to the thrill of a start-up, building something from scratch.

中国现在的年轻人和上一代不同，不在乎自己是不是在知名大国企有一份稳定的工作，反而更享受白手起家创业带来的成就感。

And, for that, an 60- to 70-hour work week might be the biggest trade-off.

这个最大的代价就是每周工作60到70个小时。