"I Sweated So Much I Never Needed to Pee": Life in China's Relentless Gig Economy

In his newly translated memoir, Hu Anyan captures the brutal labor and quiet grace of life at the edge of China's booming ecommerce industry. "Often, sweat was dripping down my back within the first two hours of a shift and would not stop dripping until the next morning," writes Hu Anyan in the new English translation of his bestselling book . "I sweated so much I never once needed to pee." This passage was on my mind as I read his book in Tianjin during one hot, Labubu brainrot summer, during which yet another unprecedented annual heat wave had forced almost everyone inside--except for the tireless couriers and delivery workers, whose services are in higher demand when temperatures soar. Hu's writing first went viral in China five years ago, and he's now a prolific, established author in the country.