Wang Jibing is 56 years old and has been delivering food on the streets of Kunshan, China, since 2019.
Between one order and the next, on the handlebars of his motorcycle or standing in a hallway, he would pull out scraps of paper and receipt stubs to jot down verses that came to mind.
No one would have imagined that those scribbles would end up becoming Low Flight, his collection of poems inspired by the stories of nearly 200 fellow delivery workers whom he interviewed about the rush and pressures of the job.
That book has just earned him the Lu Xun Literary Prize, the most prestigious award in Chinese literature, named in honor of the father of the country’s modern letters.
Before motorcycles and delivery work, Wang was a construction worker, recycling collector, and street vendor. He left high school at 19 due to a lack of money, but he never stopped reading or writing.
Now, with the most important recognition of his career in his hands, he said he will continue working on the streets until he is 60 years old. “The prize will never change who I am”, he said.
