How ‘I Deliver Parcels in Beijing’ author Hu Anyan became a working-class hero in China

In a quiet corner of a public library in Chengdu, in China’s Sichuan province, a 47-year-old man meticulously writes in his notebook. To the students around him, he may look just like another middle-aged man filling his day.

Few would guess that the man is Hu Anyan, the award-winning author of I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, a grass-roots memoir that has sold more than 2 million copies and become a cultural touchstone for China’s working class.

Hu will make a rare public appearance at this year’s Hong Kong International Literary Festival, which runs from March 1 to 8. It comes as his critically acclaimed work expands its reach globally, with the recent launch of its English translation and a French version slated for publication later this year.

The story is an honest memoir that introduces Hu as a most unlikely hero: a man who has held 19 jobs since leaving school – from appliance repairman and night-shift warehouse sorter to courier – but insists he is not a social critic, just an “honest recorder”.

“Contrary to what many believe, truthful narratives are actually very rare,” he says. “Many readers have said I articulated their feelings about work, life and contemporary Chinese society. Some have even called me their ‘voice’. But I never intended that.”

The seed for the book was planted not by ambition, but by termination. In December 2019, Hu was laid off from a Beijing courier company following a series of other low-wage, gig-economy jobs.