"I Sweated So Much I Never Needed to Pee": Life in China's Relentless Gig Economy

""Often, sweat was dripping down my back within the first two hours of a shift and would not stop dripping until the next morning," writes Hu Anyan in the new English translation of his bestselling book I Deliver Parcels in Beijing. "I sweated so much I never once needed to pee." This passage was on my mind as I read his book in Tianjin during one hot, Labubu brainrot summer,"

"While his other books, like Living in Low Places, are more about his internal life, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is a focused, refreshing, on-the-ground account of nearly a decade of work, set against the slow simmering background of China's economic rise. In addition to his stint as a courier in Beijing, Hu also recounts his adventures opening a small snack shop, his time working as a bicycle store clerk, and his brief stint as a Taobao seller."

Courier work in Beijing involves relentless physical exertion, sweating continuously for hours during shifts and sometimes through the night. Extreme heat waves increase demand for delivery services while forcing most people indoors. The work record includes periods delivering parcels, opening and operating a small snack shop, clerking in a bicycle store, and briefly selling on Taobao during its boom. Parcel-sorting and fast-paced e-commerce operations reflect a rapidly developing Chinese economy. Punishing precarity, profit pressures, and strained workplace relationships characterize the labor environment. Tireless endurance and endurance-driven survival emerge as central features of life on the edge of the booming e-commerce industry.

Read at WIRED