The Tetris effect: time regimes, returnee scholars and the unspoken language policies of Chinese higher education

Abstract Drawing on in-depth interviews with returnee scholars, this study explores how the implicit language policies driving the internationalisation of Chinese higher education produce distinct and often dissonant time regimes. While prevailing scholarship on language policy has rarely engaged with temporality, this paper argues that time is a crucial, underexamined dimension of how policies are experienced and negotiated. Participants describe a shift from the more elastic, self-directed academic rhythms they experienced abroad to the contracted, metric-driven and boundaryless temporalities in China. These tensions, analysed through Bergson’s durée and Confucian shi (时, ‘timeliness’), reveal how English-medium internationalisation policies can subvert both creative duration and a traditional sense of scholarly appropriateness. By focusing on scholars in language-related fields, the analysis demonstrates how the Tetris effect (the mental fatigue of stacking fragmented tasks) is a direct consequence of a language policy environment that prioritises quantifiable outputs over deep intellectual work. The paper concludes by advocating for temporal pluralism as a necessary consideration for future language policy research and practice.