I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

One Man's Quest to Speak the Truth About the Global Gig Economy

By: Hu Anyan, Jack Hargreaves - translator

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

"Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, translated by Jack Hargreaves, offers an unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of the gig economy, written by a guy who’s held nearly every low-wage, low-reward job on the market (delivery driver, security guard, convenience store clerk, bicycle salesman). The Cinderella bit of it is that now he can add a new title: internationally best-selling author."—Leah Greenblatt, The New York Times Book Review

A runaway bestseller in China, sold in 17+ countries, this delightfully honest and humorous account gives a face and voice to the future of work—as if Nomadland met Nickel and Dimed.

In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became the literary sensation of the year in China. Hu Anyan’s story, about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.

Hu started posting essays about his experiences online during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the south of China went viral: his nights were so hot that he could drink three liters of water without taking a toilet break; his days were spent searching for affordable rooms with proper air-conditioning; and his few moments of leisure were consumed by calculations of the amount of alcohol needed to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later.

Hu Anyan tells us about brutal work, where there is no real future in sight. But Hu is armed with deadpan humor and a strong idea of self. He moves on when he feels stuck—from logistics in the south, to parcel delivery in Beijing, to other impossible jobs. Along the way, he turns to reading and writing for strength and companionship.

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is an honest and startling first-person portrait of Hu Anyan's struggle against the dehumanizing nature of our contemporary global work system—and his discovery of the power of sharing a story.

©2022 by Hu Anyan. Translation © 2025 by Jack Hargreaves. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Intriguing portrait of working life in China

Very interesting. Narrator is a little stiff and seemed like AI. The writing is great.

Ok. Nothing great. Could be shorter

Ok I guess. Nothing great. Some insight into the culture. Wouldn't call it a bestseller

Riveting

If you ever received a parcel in China, this answers all the questions you may have had- and a bunch you hadn’t thought of yet.

The difference

This book is describing the life of someone who is so markedly different than myself that it’s baffling. At the same time the final conclusions of this book about personal freedom, love, and hate resound so universally that if through this difference I am able to empathize with the author at a core level. The author has come to the same conclusions about the nature of life, freedom, and individuality through gig work, that Socrates achieved through arguments in the gymnasiums of Athens. This book is so uniquely un-western and at the same time one of the most culturally western stories written in years.