In 2023 I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became one of the literary sensations of the year in China. Since then, rights have been sold in 15 other territories and counting. The story of a worker doing odd jobs in various anonymous cities, his stories hit a nerve with a generation of young Chinese who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.

Hu AnYan was unemployed during the COVID-19 years and started posting some of his writing online. The essay which went viral is the first in this collection: he recounts working night shifts in a huge logistics center in the South of China. Even at night, it is so hot that he never needed a toilet break despite drinking three liters of water. The work is brutal, and there is no real sense of future in sight. Both he and his coworkers make choices informed by the number of coins in their pockets: alcohol or air-con, early morning karaoke before going home, or washing clothes.

Hu AnYan goes from one odd job to another, one anonymous megalopolis to another, and candidly shares his story. How every Yuan counts when choosing which room to rent or which noodles to eat, but also how he discovers literature, music and writing as ways to escape a bleak reality. With a deadpan sense of humor carrying him through, he depicts a generation who might choose not to join the rat race of career and status, and invites us to take a close at the ‘small people’ constituting the fundamental fabric of our societies.