A graduate employee at Chinese automotive company, Chery Auto (奇瑞), has become a viral sensation after refusing to attend meetings on a Saturday.
He and other employees were expected to join internal training and staff meetings on Saturday 19 July. The employee, surnamed Li, and also referred to as “Brother Kai” (凯哥) online, sent an email refusing to join the meetings, CC-ing the company's top management, including the group's second-in-command:
"I can't take it anymore. Why do we need training on Saturday?
Training on Saturday morning, then a big meeting in the afternoon?
Chairman Yin already said we should stop treating employees' time like it doesn't matter. Can we actually follow through on that?"
“俺不中了，为啥要在周六培训？周六上午培训，下午还要开大会，尹总都说了要杜绝把员工的时间不当时间的行为，可以落实落实吗？”
Just two weeks before, the company's chairman, Yin Tongyue (尹同跃) said he wanted to change the company's management style:
"In the past, we relied on sheer manpower and championed the grind culture, while ignoring the value of employees' time.
Our practices were very people-unfriendly, and I sincerely apologise for that."
"过去我们依赖人海战术、疲劳战术，忽视员工时间价值，管理方式非常不人性化，我深表歉意。"
Yin went on to announce concrete changes in the company, including 30% fewer meetings, and specifically no meetings on Saturdays:
"From now on, we won't schedule Saturday meetings, so out-of-town employees can go home for weekends."
"今后周六不再安排会议，让在外地的员工能顺顺利利回家。"
He further reflected:
"Working excessive hours reflects inefficient management, not a fighting spirit."
"卷工时是低效管理的体现，而非奋斗精神的象征。"
This all sounded positive for Chery employees, especially those with young kids, or those who travel back to other parts of China to see their family on weekends.
Related
But, until this recent high profile pushback, the overtime and "involuted" (卷) work culture had not changed.
Senior staff still expected employees to work overtime, with Saturday training and meetings being the norm.
The head of Chery’s R&D centre even recently emailed employees to remind them: "Saturday is a workday for strivers" (周六是奋斗者的工作日).
So, frustrated with the lack of change despite the new tone from the top, this graduate employee took matters into his own hands.
After sending his email refusing to join the weekend training, he also posted it on the company's internal messaging platform. The post got 30,000 likes from employees across the company, with thousands of them sending him private messages to thank him for saying what they dared not say.
Eventually, Chery canceled the Saturday meeting, and moved it to Friday.
Many joked how it took a young graduate to stand up to the company's harsh overtime culture:
Li, a Gen Z Chery campus recruit, chose to confront it head-on by saying no to the Saturday meeting in an email, in which he copied the company's senior executives, including the group's second-in-command.
一名00后奇瑞校招生李某凯"贴脸开大"，在收到公司周六开会的邮件后，直接回复拒绝，并且将邮件抄送公司高层，包括集团二把手。
Some commentators in the Chinese media note this could be an opportunity for Chery to make difficult changes to its company culture, while the business is doing well.
Chery has had its best performance ever this year. From January to July 2025, Chery sold 1.48 million vehicles—up 14.5% year-on-year.
Company chairman, Yin Tongyue, joked at a recent automotive conference in China, saying Chery has always been:
"Timid, following others in both good and bad decisions"
胆子小，跟着别人干好事也干坏事。
But thanks to this one young graduate employee, Chery is now inadvertently leading the way against toxic work culture in China's automotive industry.
Change will not come easily, though. Working overtime is still embedded in the company's culture with internal slogans like this:
"If you can handle it, handle it. If you can't handle it, handle it anyway."
"扛得住给我扛，扛不住给我死扛。"
Still, this incident reflects the broader "anti-involution" (反内卷) movement that’s been gaining momentum this year, with Chinese companies like Midea and ByteDance implementing bans on overtime and working on weekends.
Could Chery Auto be the next Chinese company to make those changes?
That’s what we’re exploring this week!
Favourite Five
1. 硬撑 yìng chēng
to force oneself to carry on, to tough it out
国外公司拼创新，我们拼硬撑 - Foreign companies compete through innovation, while we compete by toughing it out. [3]
Related:
硬核 yìng hé – hardcore
苦撑 kǔ chēng – struggling to stay afloat, hanging on by a thread
2. 压榨 yā zhà
to exploit, to squeeze
这种管理思维将工时等同于奋斗，将压榨美化为效率 - This management style conflates long working hours with dedication and portrays exploitation as efficiency. [1]
Related:
压垮 yā kuǎ – to crush
榨干 zhà gān – to squeeze dry
3. 反内卷 fǎn nèi juǎn
to resist excessive competition, anti-involution
至少已迈出反内卷的第一步 - At least the first step toward anti-involution has been taken. [1]
Related:
反加班潮 fǎn jiā bān cháo – anti-overtime trend
4. 贴脸开大 tiē liǎn kāi dà
to confront it head-on, full confrontation mode
一名00后奇瑞校招生李某凯“贴脸开大”，在收到公司周六开会的邮件后，直接回复拒绝，并且将邮件抄送公司高层，包括集团二把手 - Li, a Gen Z Chery campus recruit, chose to confront it head-on by saying no to the Saturday meeting in an email, in which he copied the company's senior executives, including the group's second-in-command. [1]
More: we explain the unexpected origins of this phrase in tomorrow’s Sinica Phrase of the Week.
5. 初生牛犊不怕虎 chū shēng niú dú bú pà hǔ
a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger, fearless due to inexperience
这不是“初生牛犊不怕虎”，而是——有人第一次把领导的口号，当真了 - This wasn’t the case of ‘a newborn calf not afraid of a tiger’, but rather someone took the leader’s slogan literally for the first time. [4]
🎧RTM Podcast Preview
This week on the RTM Advanced podcast, we go into more detail about the reaction on social media to this story.
You’ll also learn how to use these three internet slang phrases which can be used in daily life
“Flip the table or cause a scene” (掀桌 xiān zhuō)
“Slap in the face or embarrass” (打脸 dǎ liǎn)
“Confront it head-on” (贴脸开大 tiē liǎn kāi dà)
Tune in at 6 minutes where we break down what they mean, how native speakers use them, and how you can use them in real conversations.
Every RTM post is also packed with content, tools and resources to inspire you to get back into learning Chinese every week, and wave good bye to that nagging rusty feeling.
