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I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

On Making a Living

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Brought to you by Penguin.

A witty and humane account of one man, multiple jobs and what it means to live

Hu AnYan has held nineteen different jobs since he graduated. He’s been a convenience store clerk, a bicycle salesman, a security guard and a delivery driver (among many other things). Every time the work gets punishing or the bosses too bossy, he moves on, from city to city, carrying with him nothing but his copies of Chekhov and Carver. This is his story.

A runaway bestseller in China, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is about what it’s like to try and make a living – and stay sane – in the gig economy. From the pecking order on a parcel-sorting factory floor to the perfect alcohol dose to get some daylight shut-eye before a punishing night shift, from the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the hiring departments to the ideal layout of a delivery route, Hu illuminates the hidden lives behind the roles that keep our world going. But he also shows how, through the liberating power of literature, he finds solace, and even freedom in his existence.

Quietly radical, brimming with humanity and humour, this book asks: what does work really mean? What should it mean? And do any of us really know how to live?

© Hu AnYan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Cultural & Regional Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology Urban China Witty

Critic reviews

Powerful... grim indictment of a terrible system, though Anyan finds humour and dignity in his bleakest moments (Books of the Year)
A fascinating insight into China's gig economy and the frustrations, fears and hopes of a rising generation that will shape the country's future (Books of the Year)
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
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
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
An insightful, relatable, and often humorous account of working life in twenty-first-century China
An unforgettable portrayal of the gruelling realities of work in the gig economy... Despite documenting hardship and frustration, [it] is narrated in an intimate and witty style – for which English translator Jack Hargreaves deserves great credit... inspiring [and] open-hearted
All stars
Most relevant
I’m about an hour into the audiobook, and so far, the story hasn’t really drawn me in. My main issue, though, is with the narration. It feels dry and disjointed, every Chinese word sounds awkwardly edited into the recording, almost as if it were added afterward. I even double-checked to make sure this wasn’t AI narration. The narrator often starts a sentence haltingly, pauses, then delivers the Chinese word in a completely different tone, waits a moment, and continues. The result is distracting and breaks the flow of the story.

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Update after finishing the book. Most of what I said before is still true. Story gets better and you get used to the weird narration. I also had a brief stint in parcel delivery in another country decades ago and my experience was pretty much similar.

Kind of interesting but not much

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A dehumanised narrative, utterly unengaging. It may as well have even written by an AI robot.
I've given it a couple of hours and regret having started

Dull, repetitive, poor narration

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