Food delivery rider wins China’s top literary prize
A collection of poems, some scribbled on scraps of paper between food deliveries, won Wang Jibing one of China’s top literary awards.
Low Flight, inspired by the daily challenges faced by delivery drivers, received the Lu Xun Literary Prize, named after an author who has been called the father of modern Chinese literature.
Wang, 56, who was a delivery boy around 2019, gained attention on social media with his poems and essays.
He is part of a growing group of blue-collar workers who have been praised for their literary works that offer a glimpse into the pressures they face in China’s massive gig economy.
For Wang, this prestigious literary award came after several difficult decades as an odd-job worker.
“I held my breath and felt extremely nervous… Once this came out, everything was settled,” Wang told state media outlet Global Times on July 15 when news of her winning the award broke, adding that the media attention around her put a lot of mental pressure on her.
Monetary awards for winners of the Lu Xun Literary Prize have not been publicly disclosed; but as of 2014 it stood at 100,000 Chinese yuan ($14,800; £11,000).
Born in Jiangsu province, Wang dropped out of school at a young age due to financial difficulties at home. Before becoming a food distributor, he took on a variety of jobs, from construction to waste collection to selling things from a street stall.
But his love of reading continued, and over the last decade he has been posting his own poems and essays on social media.
In 2022, one of his poems titled Man in a Hurry went viral on the internet. This was inspired by an incident in 2019 where a customer spent hours frustratingly waiting for a delivery after entering the wrong address.
In 2023, he published his first poetry collection, Man in a Hurry: Poems of a Food Delivery Driver.
Wang said that despite winning the award, he has no intention of quitting his job and plans to work until he is 60.
“I don’t need this job to make ends meet financially, but I love the spirit of the job and it keeps me fit,” he said in the Global Times report. “I want a decent life and this award will never change who I am.”
Published in 2024, Low Flight is a collection of poems inspired by interviews and surveys Wang conducted with nearly 200 delivery drivers.
“Who says that spreading your wings means flying high? Flying low also means flying” is included in his poems.
His victory comes at a time when a growing number of blue-collar workers in China have made their mark on the literary world in recent years.
Former courier Hu Anyan’s 2023 memoir, I Deliver Packages in Beijing, became a bestseller in China and attracted media attention abroad. The English translation of the memoirs was published last year.
Another title – I Am Fan Yusu – an autobiographical essay about the personal struggle of a migrant worker, took the Chinese internet by storm in 2017. The response was so intense that Fan was forced to temporarily leave his home amid endless demands from the media.
Lu Xun, for whom the literary prize is named, is considered one of China’s greatest 20th-century writers, known for his use of satirical novels to criticize traditional Chinese society.
Long remembered as one of China’s most important literary figures, Lu’s works have found renewed resonance among today’s young generation: A few years ago, a character in his novel, Kong Yiji, became a meme symbolizing frustration among Chinese youth struggling to find work.
