Food rider wins China’s highest literary award

A collection of poems, some scrawled on slips of paper between food offerings, won Wang Jibing one of China’s highest literary honors.

Inspired by the challenges faced by low-flying, everyday drivers, it was awarded the Lu Sun Literary Award – named after the writer considered the father of modern Chinese literature.

In the year Around 2019, Wang, 56, a delivery rider, became popular on social media for his poems and essays.

He is part of a group of blue-collar workers who are being celebrated for their literary work, which provides a glimpse into the pressures they face in China’s massive gig economy.

For Wang, the prestigious literary award comes after a few difficult decades as an odd-job worker.

“I held my breath and was very nervous… Once it was announced, everything settled down,” Wang told the Global Times newspaper on July 15 when news of his award broke – adding that the media attention surrounding him had put a lot of mental pressure on him.

The prize money of the recipients of the Lu Xun Literary Prize is not officially announced – although in 2010 It went for 100,000 Chinese yuan ($14,800; £11,000) in 2014.

Born in Jiangsu province, Wang dropped out of school as a teenager due to financial problems at home. Before becoming a food delivery man, he worked various jobs, from construction to scavenging and selling goods at street stalls.

But his love of reading continued and he has been posting his own poems and essays on social media over the past decade.

In the year In 2022, one of his poems, Man in a Hurry, went viral online. In the year It was inspired by an incident in 2019, in which a customer spent hours on a frustrating delivery after entering the wrong address.

In the year In 2023, he published his first collection of poems, “Man in a Hurry: Poems of a Delivery Rider.”

Despite winning the award, Wang told the newspaper that he has no intention of resigning and plans to work until his 60th birthday.

“I don’t need this job to make a living financially, but I like the feeling of the job and it keeps me healthy,” the Global Times reported. “I want a down to earth life and the prize will never change who I am.”

Low Flight, published in 2024, is a collection of poems inspired by interviews and surveys Wang conducted with nearly 200 drivers.

“Who said it means to spread your wings and fly? To fly low is to fly,” is one of the lines in the poem.

His victory comes as more and more blue-collar workers in China are making their mark in the literary world in recent years.

I Present a Parcel in Beijing, a 2023 memoir by former courier Hu Anyan, became a runaway bestseller in China and attracted foreign media attention. The English translation of the note was published last year.

Another title – I Am Fan Yusu – an autobiographical essay about the personal struggles of a migrant worker swept the Chinese internet in 2017. The response was so overwhelming that Fan temporarily left her home amid endless media inquiries.