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Ex-delivery driver gives voice to Chinas precarious gig workers

January 9, 2026
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< />A few years ago, <a id="31987291" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hu-Anyan" source="keywords" class="news-keywords" href="/tag/hu+anyan">Hu Anyan</a> was speeding through the streets of Beijing on a three-wheel motorbike loaded with packages, one of millions of delivery drivers working for China” captionrendered=”1″ data-src=”https://etimg.etb2bimg.com/photo/126434068.cms” giants.=”” height=”442″ loading=”eager” online=”” retail=”” s=”” src=”https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/images/default.jpg” width=”590″></img><br /></br>The 46-year-old is now a best-selling author after recounting his experiences in his book “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing”.</p> <p>Around two million copies have been sold since its release in 2023 across more than 20 countries. An English translation was released in October, with a French version due this month.</p> <p>The simple autobiographical account gives a voice and face to the swarms of anonymous gig workers who weave through China’s bustling cities day and night to deliver online orders, which account for a third of retail sales.</p> <p>But as a delivery driver, Hu said he “always believed (he) was trash”.</p> <p>“It was through writing that I built recognition of my own worth,” he told AFP near the flat he rents in Chengdu.</p> <p>His story reflects China’s evolution. His parents worked their entire lives in state-owned enterprises. He entered a much more flexible job market in 1999 after a decade of reforms following the Cultural Revolution.</p> <p>“Before, technical schools guaranteed a job after graduation, but that was no longer the case for my generation,” he said.</p> <p>After a string of unstable jobs, Hu, like many, joined the gig economy in 2017.</p> <p>He worked 12 hours a night in a huge parcel sorting centre in Guangdong, with a 30-minute break each shift and four days off per month.</p> <p>“I was a walking corpse with blurred vision and a wavering consciousness,” said Hu, who would drink alcohol to sleep during the day.</p> <p>– ‘Lack humanity’ –</p> <p>But it was his account of working as a delivery driver in Beijing that moved readers.</p> <p>At the time, Hu had no health insurance and no fixed salary. He calculated that at two yuan ($0.29) per delivery, he had to deliver a parcel every four minutes to earn a living. If his pace slowed, he would receive a call from from a company employee.</p> <p>“She would say: ‘You still have 60 parcels to deliver and you have 30 minutes left. What’s going on? Do you want to continue working here or not?'” he told AFP.</p> <p>“These rules lack humanity and rationality, and they oppress us every day.”</p> <p>Laid off after his employer went bankrupt, Hu recounted his experience on social media platform Douban “without any particular goal”, while juggling odd jobs. A young publisher encouraged him to turn his posts into a book.</p> <p>The voices of delivery drivers are rare in China, where the state strictly controls worker representation and public expression.</p> <p>Delivery driver Chen Guojiang, who called online for workers’ rights, was imprisoned for several months in 2021, according to media reports and NGOs. He has since disappeared from social media.</p> <p>Hu’s book passed the censors, with a few adaptations, sticking to social commentary and refraining from criticism.</p> <p>But it has resonated like “very few other works” with a generation facing job insecurity and increasing competition in the labour market, said academic Huang Ke, who wrote a thesis on China’s delivery drivers.</p> <p>– ‘How everyone survives’ –</p> <p>“The number of graduates is increasing, but job opportunities are not keeping pace,” he told AFP.</p> <p>Following the book’s release, one Douban user said he understood the irritability of some delivery drivers: “You can’t expect someone to be kind and gentle when they find themselves in an environment of insecurity and exploitation.”</p> <p>Faced with growing social awareness, authorities have introduced measures in recent years to improve the lives of delivery drivers.</p> <p>But most of China’s 80 million gig workers have “no real access to labour law protections because of their ambiguous employment status,” said Ou Lin, a law professor at Britain’s Lancaster University.</p> <p>Now financially secure, Hu is inundated with requests for proofreading and advice from aspiring writers.</p> <p>“If I hadn’t published this book, it’s quite possible that I would still be delivering orders today,” he said. “That’s how everyone survives.”</p> <p>Hu said he would be happy if his book helped improve the situation of delivery drivers, but “from a social movement perspective, literature is not very effective”.</p> <p>He wants to believe that, at the very least, “customers now say thank you more” to delivery drivers.</p> <p>aas/lal/dhw/cms/abs </p> <div> <div> <ul> <li><a href=AFP

  • Published On Jan 9, 2026 at 04:35 PM IST

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