Meaning:

This term is translated from the English phrase “social clock.” It refers to a theory by American psychologist Erik Erikson who defines the social clock as age-graded expectations for life events. The social clock establishes the culturally preferred timing of important transitions in life, like marriage, parenthood and retirement. It can be termed as the social expectations that are given by a culture about when these events should take place in life. As a result, the social clock is different for every culture and country. A discussion of this topic on the fifth season of Hubei TV’s variety show “Informal Talks” this year got this concept across to Chinese audiences.

Example:

A: 你父母最近安排你相亲了没有？

Nǐ fùmǔ zuìjìn ānpái nǐ xiāngqīn le méiyǒu？

Have your parents set you up with someone recently?

B: 没有。他们不再催我，我也不再为没跟上社会时钟而焦虑。

Méiyǒu。Tāmen búzài cuī wǒ，wǒ yě búzài wèi méi gēnshàng shèhuì shízhōng ér jiāolǜ。

No. They have stopped pushing me to find a Mr. Right, and I no longer feel driven by anxiety for not following the social clock.