Food delivery rider wins China's top literary prize.
Eze paul@pauleze3332
2 days ago
Food delivery rider wins China's top literary prize.
Wang Jibing, 56, spent years scribbling poems on slips of paper between food deliveries. His collection "Low Flight" - inspired by the everyday struggles of delivery riders - has just won the Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China's highest literary honours.
Wang left school as a teenager due to financial hardship. He worked construction, scavenged waste, sold things at a street stall, then became a delivery rider around 2019. But he never stopped reading. He posted poems and essays on social media for years before one poem - "Man in a Hurry" - went viral in 2022, inspired by a frustrating delivery after a customer entered the wrong address.
"Who says spreading your wings means flying high? Flying low is also flying."
Despite the award, Wang says he has no plans to quit delivering. "I love the vibe of the work and it keeps me fit. I want a down-to-earth life and the award will never change who I am."
He is part of a growing movement of blue-collar workers in China being celebrated for literary works that offer a glimpse into the pressures of the gig economy.
This is the kind of story that reminds you: poetry lives everywhere. In the margins. Between deliveries. On slips of paper that almost got thrown away. The next great poet might be the person handing you your food tonight.
Source: BBC News
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2 days ago