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Ex-delivery driver gives voice to China's precarious gig workers

In 2023, Hu turned his Douban posts into a published memoir after a young publisher encouraged him, and around two million copies of I Deliver Parcels in Beijing have been sold.
Working 12-hour night shifts in a huge Guangdong sorting centre, Hu earned two yuan per delivery with minimal breaks and lacked health insurance or fixed salary due to ambiguous employment status.
Hu described his physical toll, saying `I was a walking corpse with blurred vision and a wavering consciousness`, said Hu, and later mentioned that writing helped him recognize his worth before his social-media disappearance.
In recent years, Chinese authorities have introduced measures, Hu's manuscript passed censors with adaptations, and activist Chen Guojiang was imprisoned in 2021.
The book gives a human face to millions of delivery workers fulfilling online retail orders, which account for a third of retail sales, and reflects labour-market shifts since 1999.

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Ex-delivery driver gives voice to China's precarious gig workers

A few years ago, Hu Anyan was speeding through the streets of Beijing on a three-wheel motorbike loaded with packages, one of millions of delivery drivers working for China's online retail giants.

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