Fixed Deadlines Archives - understand-culture

Late Means Death

In the seventh month of the first year of the Second Emperor of Qin, nine hundred conscripts were sent to garrison Yuyang. They camped at Dazexiang. The Records of the Grand Historian says: “It rained heavily, and the roads were impassable. They judged that they had already missed the deadline. For missing the deadline, the law was beheading for all.”

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang reasoned: “To flee now is death. To rise up is also death. Since death is the same, why not die for a state?” They killed the officers in charge and told the men: “You met the rain, and you have all missed the deadline. Missing the deadline means beheading.” The men followed them into revolt.

Qin legal texts excavated at Shuihudi set much lighter penalties for late labor service: a reprimand for three to five days, a fine for longer delays. In a 2014 article for The Paper, Guo Jian argued that Chen Sheng’s claim was most likely invented to rouse the men to revolt.

Forty-Three Hours

At 11 p.m. on November 13, 2015, crews in Beijing began to replace the Sanyuan Bridge. The old bridge, weighing 1,350 tonnes, was removed and replaced in one piece by a single machine that carries and lays bridge sections.

The work ended at 6 p.m. on November 15, after 43 hours. Reports said the workers had not closed their eyes for three days and two nights.

Ten Months for the Great Hall

Construction of the Great Hall of the People began in October 1958. It was one of the Ten Great Buildings in the capital for the tenth anniversary of the People’s Republic, on October 1, 1959.

The hall was completed on September 24, 1959. The work took just over ten months, from the design drawings to the decoration and the installation and testing of all equipment. Accounts of the project mention the workers’ overtime and materials gathered from across the country.

White Plus Black, Five Plus Two

According to a report from January 2019, an official of the Ministry of Public Security had said the year before that “5+2” and “white plus black” had become the daily working state of China’s police.

“Five plus two” adds the weekend to the five working days. “White plus black” adds the night to the day.

The Military Pledge

A junlingzhuang is a written pledge given on receiving an order. The signer accepts severe punishment if the task is not done. In chapter 46 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a pledge reads: “I am willing to submit a military pledge. If it is not done in three days, I accept heavy punishment.”

A CCTV News article noted that the fight against poverty was the only task since the 18th Party Congress for which Party and government heads signed military pledges to the Center. Xi Jinping said in 2016: “A military pledge is not made lightly. What we say, we must do.”

Huoshenshan Hospital

On January 23, 2020, the government of Wuhan announced a new hospital for coronavirus patients, modeled on Beijing’s Xiaotangshan SARS hospital. Work began on January 25. On February 2, Huoshenshan Hospital was handed over to the army, and on February 4 it took its first patients. From planning to completion took ten days.

Millions of people at home watched the building site on a livestream, and “cloud supervisor” (yun jiangong) became a popular term. By 10 p.m. on one evening, the CCTV stream had counted 86.24 million views.

Workers later said that on February 3 only the first of four zones was in operation. Zones 2 to 4 were still in their final stage of construction.

Shenzhen Speed

Construction of the Shenzhen International Trade Center began in April 1982. At first each floor took seven days, then six, five and four. From the 31st floor on, the builders kept to three days per floor. CCTV’s evening news and People’s Daily followed the progress, and “three days a floor” became known across the country.

The main tower was topped out on April 30, 1984, a full month early. At 160 meters, it was then the tallest building in China. Shenzhen sudu, “Shenzhen speed,” became a phrase for the pace of the whole zone.

Working 996 as a Blessing

On April 12, 2019, Jack Ma told an internal Alibaba event that being able to work “996,” from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, was “a huge blessing.” For companies like Alibaba, he said, it was a fubao (福报), a reward earned by good deeds.

Ma later wrote on Weibo that no company should or could force employees to work 996. In August 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Supreme People’s Court published model labor cases against unlawful overtime rules.