A collection of poems, some written on paper between food deliveries, earned Wang Jibing one of China’s top literary honors.
Low Flight, inspired by the daily challenges faced by cargo passengers, won the Lu Xun Scholars Award – named after the author who has been called the father of modern Chinese literature.
Wang, 56, who became a freight forwarder in 2019, has gained popularity on social media for his poetry and essays.
He is part of a growing group of hardworking workers who are being praised for their books, which offer glimpses into the pressures they face in China’s massive economy.
For Wang, the prestigious academic award comes after several difficult decades as a non-traditional worker.
“I held my breath and felt very nervous… Once it was revealed, everything was fixed,” Wang told the country’s Global Times on July 15, when the news broke that he had won the award – adding that the media attention around him had caused him great mental pressure.
Prize money for Lu Xun Literary Prize recipients is not publicly announced – although as of 2014 it stood at 100,000 Chinese yuan ($14,800; £11,000).
Born in Jiangsu province, Wang dropped out of school at an early age due to financial difficulties at home. He found a variety of jobs, from construction to scavenging and selling items at a stall, before becoming a delivery man.
But his love of reading persisted, and for the past ten years he has been posting his poems and essays on social media.
In 2022, one of his poems, titled Man in a Hurry, was circulated online. It was inspired by an incident in 2019, where he spent hours transporting a concern after a customer entered the wrong address.
In 2023 he published his first collection of poems, Fast Man: Poems of a Delivery Driver.
Despite winning the award, Wang told the newspaper that he has no intention of giving up his job, adding that he plans to work until he is 60 years old.
“Financially, I don’t need this job to make a living, but I like the atmosphere of the job and it keeps me healthy,” said a Global Times report. “I want a low-key life and an award will never change who I am.”
Low Flight, published in 2024, is a collection of poems inspired by interviews and surveys conducted by Wang with around 200 delivery passengers.
“Who says that spreading your wings means flying up? Flying down is also flying,” says one of the lines in his poems.
His win comes as the growing number of blue-collar workers in China in recent years has been highlighted in the literature.
Deliver Parcels in Beijing, a 2023 memorial to former diplomat Hu Anyan, became a bestseller in China and attracted media attention abroad. An English version of the memoir was published last year.
Another title – I am Fan Yusu – an autobiographical essay about the struggle of an immigrant, swept the Chinese Internet in 2017. The response was so overwhelming that Fan had to temporarily leave his home amid endless media requests.
Lu Xun, for whom the literary award is named, is widely regarded as one of the greatest Chinese writers of the 20th century, known for using satirical novels to criticize traditional Chinese society.
Long remembered as one of the most important figures of Chinese literature, Lu’s works have found a new resonance among the younger generation today: A few years ago, Kong Yiji, a character from his novel became a symbol of frustration among Chinese youth struggling to find jobs.
