YAN ZHUANG2026年8月20日胡安焉的回忆录《我在北京送快递》在中国成为畅销书，后来被译成英文。这本书以日记形式记录了他20年间在中国各地从事的19份工作。 Jade Gao/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA Chinese food delivery driver rushes from gig to gig, measuring time by the number of jobs he completes instead of by the passing of the seasons. He toils in cities across China to send money back to his family, but has been away for so long that his son calls him “that man” instead of “Dad.”一位中国外卖骑手奔波于一个又一个外卖订单之间，衡量时间的标准是完成了多少单，而非季节的更替。他在中国各地的城市里辛勤工作，把钱寄回家，但他离家太久，以至于儿子叫他“那个人”而不是“爸爸”。These are scenes from the poems of Wang Jibing, a food delivery driver, one of several Chinese poets and authors who have turned their experiences of repetitive factory labor and insecure gig work into art.这些场景出自外卖骑手王计兵的诗歌。在中国有许多这样的诗人和作家，将他们在重复性工厂劳动和不稳定的零工经济中的经历转化为艺术。This literary genre has ballooned in popularity in recent years, as many Chinese have grown pessimistic about the economy. For a wide swath of society, wages have stagnated, youth unemployment is high and the promise of a better life in return for hard work has faded. Some authors use their writing to call attention to the harsh realities of life for migrant and gig workers, while others celebrate the humanity that flourishes in spite of those conditions. Their styles are often raw and straightforward.近年来，随着许多中国人对经济前景日益悲观，这类文学体裁急剧流行起来。对于广大社会群体来说，工资停滞不前，青年失业率居高不下，用辛勤劳动换取更好生活的承诺已经破灭。一些作家用他们的写作来唤起人们对农民工和零工从业者严酷生活现实的关注，另一些作家则赞颂在这种境况下不屈不挠的人性。他们的风格往往质朴而直率。Writers like Hu Anyan, a courier who wrote a best-selling memoir about the jobs he has worked across the gig economy, and Fan Yusu, who left her children behind to work as a live-in nanny in Beijing, have tapped into these themes. They have published essays online that have been shared widely and led to book deals. Some best-sellers have been translated and published overseas.许多作家都触及了这些主题，比如写了一本畅销回忆录讲述自己在零工经济中从事过的各种工作的快递员胡安焉，以及她离开孩子到北京做住家保姆的范雨素。他们在网上发表的文章被广泛传播，并由此得到了图书出版合同。一些畅销书已被翻译并在海外出版。Last month, Mr. Wang’s new poetry collection, “Low Flight,” won the Lu Xun Literary Prize, in the highest institutional recognition for the genre yet.上个月，王计兵的新诗集《低处飞行》荣获鲁迅文学奖，这是迄今为止体制给予这一文学门类的最高荣誉。For the Chinese public, curiosity about these workers is intertwined with anxiety about their own prospects. The concern may be particularly pronounced for members of China’s middle class. They “pay more attention to these kinds of narratives because they may represent their future lives,” said Zhu Ping, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of California San Diego’s literature department.对中国公众而言，对这些工人的好奇心与对自身前景的焦虑交织在一起。这种担忧在中产阶级成员中可能尤为明显。加州大学圣迭戈分校文学系中国研究教授朱萍表示，他们“更关注这类叙事，因为它们可能代表了自己未来的生活”。Gig and factory workers are ubiquitous, yet the hardship and indignities they endure are rarely depicted by China’s state-controlled media, which prefers a more positive spin. As the literary work’s influence has grown, Chinese officials, wary of the power of workers’ grievances to illuminate policy shortcomings or spawn unrest, have increasingly sought to shape it, experts said.零工和工厂工人无处不在，但他们所承受的艰辛和屈辱却很少被中国官方媒体描绘，后者更倾向于积极的报道基调。专家表示，随着这类文学作品影响力的增长，中国官员——他们警惕工人诉求可能暴露政策缺陷或引发骚乱的力量——已越来越多地试图对其进行塑造。去年，中国深圳的外卖骑手。The Rise of Migrant Workers’ Literature农民工文学的兴起The genre known as migrant workers’ literature mirrors the trajectory of a work force that now numbers more than 400 million people.被称为“农民工文学”的门类反映了如今已超过4亿的劳动力大军的发展轨迹。Since the 1980s, rural workers have powered China’s factories and cities while often being denied the health insurance, unemployment and retirement benefits available to urban residents. The literary movement’s early authors wrote essays and poems about their experiences in factories, but as manufacturing jobs have begun to disappear, its new breakout stars are more often doing gig work.自20世纪80年代以来，农民工为中国的工厂和城市提供了动力，却常常被剥夺城镇居民享有的医疗保险、失业和退休福利。这一文学运动的早期作者写下了关于他们在工厂经历的散文和诗歌，但随着制造业岗位开始消失，新一批脱颖而出的作者更多是从事零工工作。One such star is Mr. Hu, the courier who wrote a best-selling memoir. The book, “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing,” was published in 2023 in China, where it was deemed that year’s best book by Douban, China’s equivalent to Goodreads. It is a diaristic account of the 19 jobs he held over two decades across China, including as a sorter at a logistics company, security guard, convenience store worker and courier.其中一位明星是写了畅销回忆录的快递员胡安焉。他的书《我在北京送快递》于2023年在中国出版，被豆瓣评为当年最佳图书。这是一部日记体的记述，记录了他20年间在中国各地从事的19份工作，包括物流公司的分拣员、保安、便利店店员和快递员。Mr. Hu’s work first came to public attention through an essay he posted online. It detailed his year on the night shift sorting packages at a logistics firm, where the work was grueling and he struggled to get used to sleeping during the day:胡安焉的作品最初是通过他发表在网上的一篇文章引起公众关注。该文详细记述了他在一家物流公司上夜班分拣包裹的一年，工作艰苦，他努力适应白天睡觉的作息：I passed by a row of houses on my way in every day. I could smell the cooking going on inside, see the people collapsed on their couches, tired and content after a day’s work. That, to me, was what true happiness looked like. Meanwhile I was already more exhausted than those people, and I hadn’t even reached the warehouse. I cursed myself in those moments: My damned body cursed my willpower, and my damned willpower cursed it back. I swore I would go right to sleep when I clocked off in the morning. But then the morning came around, and everything went the same as the day before. I was trapped in a loop.— “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing,” translated into English by Jack Hargreaves.在上班的路上，经过一排平房，闻到屋里传出的饭菜香味，看到别人已完成一天的劳动，正惬意地瘫坐在沙发上，我深深感到这种休闲的时刻才是真正的幸福，而我甚至还没有开始干活儿就已经比他们更累了——这时候我就会恶毒地咒骂自己，我的身体咒骂我的意志，我的意志也咒骂我的身体，我发誓明早下班后要立刻睡觉。可是到了明早，情况又和前一天一样，就这么周而复始。——胡安焉《我在北京送快递》上周三，上海书展。Ding Nan, a 35-year-old teacher in Wuhan, said Mr. Hu’s book was the first piece of migrant workers’ literature she had read, and she has since sought out more works in the genre.35岁的武汉教师丁楠（音）说，胡安焉的书是她读的第一部农民工文学作品，此后她又读了更多这类作品。She said she was drawn to stories of gig workers because of their constant presence in her own life. “They are the strangers we regularly interact with, but I never knew what their lives were like,” she said.她说自己之所以被零工工人的故事吸引，是因为他们在她自己的生活中无处不在。“他们是我们经常打交道的陌生人，但我从来不知道他们的生活是什么样的，”她说。Some pieces approach the experience with more hope. In his poetry collection, “Low Flight,” Mr. Wang, the delivery driver, celebrates the dignity and resilience of delivery workers:有些作品以更富希望的态度来呈现这些经历。在他的诗集《低处飞行》中，外卖骑手王计兵赞颂了外卖员的尊严和韧性：Who prescribes that with wings spread one must fly high谁说展翅就要高飞Low flight is also a flight低处的飞行也是飞行With wind rustling like birds’ chirps也有风声如鸟鸣And wheels speeding like shooting stars有车轮如流星The meal delivery note attached to a takeout包装上贴着的订单In clear black and white symbolizes urgency白纸黑字，急急如律令Like a legal document and a magic incantation— “Low Flight,” translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen是公文也如神符 ——王计兵《低处飞行》Ms. Ding said that migrant workers’ stories also changed her preconceptions about the workers. “Society has many stereotypes about them — we think their lives are wretched, that they are oppressed,” she said. “But when I read these books, I realized they are also very optimistic.”丁楠说，农民工的故事也改变了她对这些工人的成见。“社会对他们有很多刻板印象——我们认为他们的生活很悲惨，他们受到压迫，”她说，“但当我读到这些书时，我意识到他们也非常乐观”。“Low Flight” won Mr. Wang the Lu Xun prize, which is overseen by a government body and given out once every three years. Chinese state media has celebrated Mr. Wang’s win as heralding a new, utopian literary landscape in which anyone can find success.《低处飞行》为王计兵赢得了鲁迅文学奖，这个由政府机构管理的奖项每三年颁发一次。中国官方媒体盛赞王计兵的获奖预示着一种新的、乌托邦式的文学景观的到来，在这种景观中，任何人都可以取得成功。But a tension exists between the interests of the Chinese government, which downplays stories of poverty or social inequality, and migrant workers’ literature, which lays those realities bare, said Ms. Zhu of the University of California San Diego. She saw Mr. Wang’s award as part of the government’s effort to shape the genre by elevating a more acceptable voice — one that tended toward hope and optimism, rather than criticism of the system’s inherent unfairness.但加州大学圣迭戈分校的朱萍表示，一边是中国政府淡化贫困或社会不公的故事，一边是农民工文学将这些现实暴露无遗，两者间存在着一种张力。她认为王计兵的获奖是政府在通过提升一种更可接受的声音——倾向于希望和乐观，而非批评体制固有之不公的声音——来塑造这一文学门类。上个月，王计兵凭借关于其外卖骑手工作的诗歌赢得了中国最负盛名的文学奖项之一。 Wang XuzhongThe Chinese government has said that it wants to foster workers’ voices as part of what it describes as “new literature and arts of the masses,” stories that have taken off in the online era, unconstrained by the traditional gatekeepers of the publishing industry.中国政府表示希望培育工人的声音，作为其所谓的“新大众文艺”的一部分。这些故事在网络时代兴起，不受出版业传统机制的约束。That means more resources and opportunities for writers — but largely for the ones who tell palatable stories, said Maghiel van Crevel, a professor of Chinese literature at Leiden University in the Netherlands who studies migrant workers’ literature. Depictions of hardship are acceptable, he said, but linking that hardship to government policy “would be crossing a red line and make it impossible to publish.”荷兰莱顿大学研究农民工文学的中国文学教授柯雷(Maghiel van Crevel)表示，这意味着作家们获得了更多的资源和机会，但主要是那些讲述顺应主流的故事的人。他说，描绘苦难是可以接受的，但将这种苦难与政府政策联系起来“将会跨越红线，导致无法出版”。But Mr. van Crevel noted that receiving institutional support did not necessarily mean that a writer had “sold out.” Mr. Wang’s reception by the Chinese establishment “doesn’t necessarily make his writing less authentic,” he said.但柯雷也指出，获得体制支持并不一定意味着作家已经“妥协”。他说，王计兵被中国体制所接纳“并不一定使他的写作缺乏真实性”。From the Factory Floor to Worker Advocacy从工厂车间到工人权益倡导Authors like Zheng Xiaoqiong have continued to speak out about workers’ rights even after achieving mainstream success.郑小琼这样的作家在获得主流成功后也继续为工人权利发声。郑小琼是广州一家文学杂志的编辑。她创作于21世纪初的诗歌记录了她作为工厂女工的生活。 via Zheng XiaoqiongMs. Zheng rose to prominence in China in the 2000s for her poems chronicling the monotony and exhaustion women endured in factories. She described exploitative bosses, workers who suffered from severed fingers or occupational diseases and young women forced into prostitution:郑小琼在2000年代声名鹊起，用诗歌记录了女性在工厂中忍受的单调和疲惫。她描写了剥削成性的老板、手指被切断或患上职业病的工人，以及被迫卖淫的年轻女性：the flowing products and interlocking time are swallowed up quickly流动的制品与时间交错，吞噬，这么快aging ten years flowing past like water enormous weariness老了，十年像水样流动，巨大的厌倦floats through the mind for many years she’s stuck by在脑海中漂浮，多年来，她守着the screws one screw two screws turning to the left to the right螺丝，一颗，两颗，转动，向左向右fixing her dreams and her youth to some product look将梦想与青春固定在某个制品，看着at her pale youth running from an inland village苍白的青春，一路奔跑，从内陆乡村to a factory by the sea all the way to a shelf in America— “Woman Worker: Youth Pinned to a Station,” translated by Eleanor Goodman.到沿海工厂，一直到美国某个货架——郑小琼《女工：被固定在卡座上的青春》，由顾爱玲(Eleanor Goodman)译为英文。Ms. Zheng has received literary prizes and parlayed her writing into a better life and a magazine career. She has also continued to speak out about the issues facing workers in China and around the world.郑小琼获得了文学奖项，并利用写作改善了生活，开启了在杂志社的职业生涯。同时她也继续就中国和世界各地工人面临的问题发声。“I’ve always hoped that those in China who have been fortunate enough to achieve upward social mobility can look back and offer a hand to those who are still bogged down, just as they once were,” she said in an interview.“我一直希望，那些在中国有幸实现了向上社会流动的人能够回过头来，向那些仍然深陷和他们当初一样的困境中的人伸出援手，”她在一次采访中说。“We cannot change reality with poetry,” she said, “but we have a responsibility to speak out.”“我们无法用诗歌改变现实，”她说，“但我们有责任发声”。Siyi Zhao对本文有研究贡献。Yan Zhuang是时报驻首尔记者，报道突发新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。