A delivery rider on a scooter in Shenzhen, China, in April last year. [Getty Images]
A delivery rider on a scooter in Shenzhen, China, in April last year. [Getty Images]

A delivery rider has won one of China's most prestigious literary awards, the Lu Xun Literary Prize, drawing widespread attention.

The BBC reported Friday that Wang Jibing, 56, a Chinese food delivery rider, had won the prize for his poetry collection "Low Flight."

The Lu Xun Literary Prize is named after Lu Xun, widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese literature, and is considered one of the most authoritative and prestigious awards administered by the Chinese Writers Association. It recognizes work across four categories: novels, novellas and short stories, translation, and poetry.

Wang Jibing, winner of the Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China's most prestigious literary awards. [SNS]
Wang Jibing, winner of the Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China's most prestigious literary awards. [SNS]

Wang, a native of Jiangsu Province, dropped out of school as a teenager due to financial hardship. He drifted through a series of jobs — construction worker, scrap collector and street vendor — before becoming a delivery rider.

Even through those difficult years, he never stopped reading and writing. Wang began working as a delivery rider in 2019 and steadily built a following by posting his poems and prose on SNS. His 2022 collection "Man in a Hurry" went viral online — inspired by a real experience in which a customer entered the wrong address, leaving him wandering for hours trying to complete a delivery.

Wang published his first full collection, "Man in a Hurry: Poems of a Food Delivery Rider," in 2023, and last year released "Low Flight," based on interviews and surveys of about 200 fellow delivery workers. The award-winning collection captures the grinding realities and everyday sorrows of life on the road for food couriers.

Wang told China's state-run Global Times that he had "been scribbling poems on scraps of paper in between deliveries."

"I held my breath waiting for the result — I was that nervous," he said. "Only after hearing I had won did I finally feel at ease." He added, however, that the sudden flood of media attention had taken a considerable psychological toll.

Wang said he plans to keep making deliveries despite the honor. "I don't need to do this job for financial reasons anymore, but I enjoy the working atmosphere and it helps me stay healthy," he said. "I want a life grounded in reality. Winning an award won't change who I am."

The BBC said Wang's win reflects a broader trend in which writers from blue-collar and manual labor backgrounds have been gaining increasing recognition in China's literary circles.

Hu Anyan, who worked as a courier in Beijing, became a bestseller in China and drew international attention with his memoir "I Deliver Packages in Beijing." Fan Yusu, one of China's most prominent migrant-worker writers, caused an immediate sensation when her autobiographical essay "I Am Fan Yusu" was published online in 2017.


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