I Deliver Parcels in Beijing
by Hu Anyan
Translated by Jack Hargreaves
Published by Astra House
What It’s About
This is a memoir of a man who has worked nineteen different jobs, most of them the kinds of jobs people walk past without noticing. Hu Anyan takes you through each one with a deadpan honesty that feels like sitting beside him while he talks about his life. He has no interest in making himself look impressive. He just tells you what happened, the way it happened, and somehow that simplicity becomes the most impressive part of the book.
He calls himself a gig worker, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that this type of work is not a trend for him. It is survival and routine and irritation and small victories. Some jobs last days, some months, and all of them show you a different corner of China you don’t normally get access to. This is not a tour. It is a window.
What Stuck With Me
What impressed me most was how much he could say with almost no embellishment. The humor is dry and often shows up in moments that are not actually funny, and that is exactly why it lands. He laughs at things because sometimes they are so ridiculous and so human that laughing is the only reasonable response.
The honesty is what makes the book shine. None of this is extraordinary. None of these jobs are glamorous. But the way he talks about them gives you a glimpse into a reality that is normal for so many people in China and probably more and more people everywhere. The class divisions, the frustration, the small power trips from people who have authority only because someone said they do. It is all there.
I kept thinking about gig workers I have seen in Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, KL. They move fast, they work hard, and they are easy to overlook. But I have never seen this life from the inside like this. It reminded me that stability is a privilege and that for many people this kind of job-hopping is not chaos, it is life.
There is also something unexpectedly endearing about his voice. He is not self-pitying. He is not looking for sympathy. He is just telling you the truth as he lived it. You almost feel the book shouldn’t be as good as it is because it is so ordinary, but that is exactly why it works and why I love it.
Would I Recommend It
Absolutely, but not for everyone.
If you need a plot or a big emotional arc, this will not give you that. Nothing extraordinary happens. It is just a life.
But if you are the kind of reader who enjoys watching people, who can sit quietly and take in the small details of a stranger’s day and somehow feel something because of it, you will love this. If you appreciate simple, clear storytelling from a voice that doesn’t try to impress you, this book is fantastic.
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is not flashy. It is real. And sometimes that’s what you want.
Memoirs / Nonfiction on MAE:
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