Delivering Food: The World of a Female Rider

In the spring of 2024, unemployed Wang Wan started working as a food delivery rider. From a penalized novice to a skilled worker with good performance, she documented the people and events, the hardships and joys she encountered while on the run—where delivery riders eat and use the restroom, how they cope with off-peak seasons and peak hours, how they deal with various customers, bargain with platforms, and contend with security guards and traffic police; and, as a woman and a divorcee, the extra stares and challenges she faced. In short, she wrote about the little-known living conditions of delivery riders, especially female delivery riders. What always troubled her was her identity predicament as a low-income worker, and the complex emotions she held towards her family and hometown. The book describes two worlds: one is the world within algorithms, a world of constant shuttling between urban villages and large shopping malls in Beijing; the other is the world of human relationships in her hometown in Shandong, a world she both feared being shut out of and worried about being absorbed into. Suspended between these two, Wang Wan was always seeking a place of peace, and unexpectedly, delivering food gave her a temporary sense of security. "Although time is fragmented and my body is increasingly worn out, I feel at ease because there is a job I can always do, and this is a life I can control."