I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

Illuminating and often startling

Guardian

Hypnotic . . . I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is quietly revolutionary simply because it treats the minutiae of work itself as important. The bureaucratic nightmare of trying to get a company to onboard a new employee; the propensity of electronic delivery bikes to break down; the discomfort of delivering packages in the freezing cold, but having to wear fingerless gloves to type on a phone screen—that these can be the topic of a book is almost revelatory

Washington Post

An insightful, relatable, and often humorous account of working life in twenty-first-century China

Jacobin

Mr Hu’s straightforward prose and keen eye for detail capture the drudgery of gruelling low-wage work... Writing, Mr Hu insists, is an opposite pursuit, allowing him to express his individuality and depict that of other people. He has gone from shengchan, producing, to shenghuo, living

The Economist

Hu Anyan's reflections touch on universal concerns. The language may be Chinese, but the exhaustion is global. Britain's work culture, long defined by quiet endurance, has slipped into its own paradox: a nation that works longer hours yet produces less, where the promise of flexibility too often disguises instability

New Statesman