This is the seventh and final essay in my series on Delivering Food: The World of a Female Rider by Wang Wan.
Over the past few essays, Wang Wan has taken us into a world most people rarely see closely—the world of female food delivery riders. Through her writing we see the pressure of the algorithm, the fear of late penalties, the physical wear and tear on the body, and the particular vulnerabilities faced by women riders.
At first glance, this work appears to represent the harshness of the modern platform economy. The system measures every minute, calculates every route, and pushes riders to move faster and faster through the city.
But Wang Wan’s story is not only about hardship. It is also about how people continue to search for security, stability and dignity inside systems that often seem indifferent to human limits.
Like many migrant workers in China and globally, Wang Wan left her rural hometown at a young age and moved to the city in search of a livelihood. Over the years she tried 17 different jobs before becoming a food delivery rider. The work is physically demanding and often exhausting. Yet it also gives her something she values deeply: a sense of control over her own time.
She once wrote:
“Although my time is broken into fragments and my body slowly wears down, I feel a certain peace of mind. There is always this work that I can return to, and through it I still have a life I can control.”
This sentence captures a simple truth about the lives of many workers. What people seek is very basic. They are simply looking for a way to support themselves independently.
The story of Wang Wan’s mother expresses the same idea. When her mother proudly handed her the 200 yuan she had earned from doing small jobs, the money itself is insignificant. But the meaning behind it is: the ability to earn something through one’s own labor, without depending on others.
In recent years, there has been much discussion about platform labor. Journalists examine working conditions. Economists analyze labor markets. Sociologists debate about inequality. Each perspective reveals an important part of the story.
Yet Wang Wan’s book gives us something those analyses often miss: the voice of someone living inside the system.
She does not romanticize or glorify the work, nor does she see herself as a victim at the hand of the system. She understands the costs of the choices she has made, and accepts them with a calm and gratitude for being able to preserve a sense of dignity in the process.
Cities will continue to change. Technologies will evolve. New systems of work will replace old ones. Yet Wang Wan’s story stays with us, inviting us to think about the millions of people around the world whose lives resemble hers. For them, work rarely means glory or wealth or passion. More often, it means something very basic but just as important—the assurance that they can live by the work of their own hands.