Pengpai News reporter Liu Yuxiu is the third year that Afengjie is a takeaway rider in Beijing. Before that, she never thought she would start her life in Beijing as a "rider". Before coming to Beijing, she and her husband ran a car beauty shop in their hometown of Wuhan, Hubei.

Pengpai News reporter Liu Yuxiu

This year is A Fengjie's third year as a takeaway rider in Beijing. Before that, she never thought she would start her life in Beijing as a "rider".

Before coming to Beijing, she and her husband ran a car beauty shop in their hometown of Wuhan, Hubei. The speed of making money could not keep up with the speed of losing money. A Fengjie closed the car beauty shop and owed more than 100,000 yuan in debt.

In 2019, in order to repay debts and escape the embarrassment of entrepreneurship failure, Afengjie and her husband decided to move to Beijing and find a job that earns more money. A Fengjie, 42, is an undergraduate graduate of finance. She was admitted to a position in her hometown system and resigned and started her business.

She said: "I think I have education and not too old. I try submitting my resume online. How could I know it's a takeaway?"

There are many female riders who have similar life circumstances as A Fengjie. They are middle-aged and face multiple difficulties such as career, marriage, and parenting. In order to struggle from the "mess" of life, they put on takeaway riding uniforms, helmets, and ride electric bikes on the streets of the city.

In this male-dominated industry, they have experienced only a few similar loneliness in the work group of more than 220 people. They have experienced the frustration of being crushed by male riders in many aspects such as physical strength and speed, and have also had inferiority complex when facing external scrutiny. The job of riders may not be the final destination. In this unstable profession, they try to find their own position and fight life.

A female rider. Visual ChinaData picture

Temporary "place"

A Fengjie and her husband rented a small single room with a monthly rent of more than 1,000 yuan in Xicheng District, Beijing. The 15-year-old daughter stayed in her hometown and was taken care of by relatives.

In order to make a living and pay back 2,000 yuan a month's debt on time, Afengjie hopes to find a job that pays her on time. My husband currently has no job and rides a shared bicycle around looking for investment opportunities every day. He wants to use his savings to do some small business in Beijing. But A Fengjie disagreed, "The epidemic is so serious now."

She interviewed the supermarket foreman position. The other party paid 6,500 yuan, which was not allowed to provide food and accommodation. Her responsibilities include ordering and shipping, item classification, scheduling, and knowing how to use a computer. She is capable of all these, but she is stuck in the "age requirement is under 38 years old". Later, when she received an interview invitation from the supermarket, she first asked the other party, "Do you have any age requirements?" But the age limit required by most supermarkets is 35 years old.

A real estate company has given her an olive branch, a sales position, with a basic salary of 2,000 yuan per month, and the commission is calculated separately. She secretly asked a girl in the store who had worked for two years, and the other party told her that her salary was stable at 4,000 yuan per month, which gave up her idea of ​​joining the company.

When she received a call to recruit a takeaway rider, she was a little surprised. The other party told her: "Do work hard six or seven thousand, work hard eight or nine thousand, work hard and earn more than ten thousand per month." As long as you can ride an electric bike, download a navigation and a takeaway order-taking platform APP, you can get on duty at any time, which makes her feel moved.

32-year-old Liu Qing works as a takeaway rider in Tianjin, and is also forced to make a living. Before becoming a takeaway rider, Liu Qing and her husband ran a small restaurant in Tianjin. Due to the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the passenger flow dropped sharply. The couple closed restaurants in 2020. Her husband went to work in other restaurants, and she returned to her hometown in Xinyang, Henan for confinement.

Liu Qing already has a 7-year-old daughter, but in her hometown, most families have two or three children, and the family also hopes that she will have another son.

The process of celebrating a second child was not smooth. When she was five months pregnant, she found that the fetus had a 60% chance of dysplasia during her prenatal examination. Liu Qing did not dare to take the risk of giving birth to a child, "If the child is really sick, it is not something a family like me can bear." Due to helplessness, she chose to have an abortion when the fetus was seven months old.

Liu Qing rested in her hometown for a year. After returning to Tianjin in May 2021, she often felt anxious. "I didn't earn money, and the children were not taken good care of. I felt useless."

On weekdays, my husband works in a hotel and gets off work at 10 o'clock every night. He lies down and sleeps when he goes home, and doesn't rest during holidays. She took care of her daughter alone and it was difficult to find a formal job.She tried to work as an hourly worker, but at the busiest meal time, she had to go to school to pick up her daughter from school. When she was busy with holidays, she had to cook for her daughter at home and tutor her homework.

But no matter how difficult it is, she is unwilling to send her children back to her hometown to be a left-behind child. "Because when I was in elementary school, my parents went out to work, and I stayed behind for a while and I knew that feeling, so I must bring my child with me.

Liu Qing sent her daughter to school at 8 am every morning and then picked up her daughter from evening care at 5:30 pm. The focus of life is always on the children. Last September, when her daughter was in the first grade of elementary school, she had time to work.

She works as a crowdsourcing rider on the takeaway platform, "It's freer to take the time, and if you want to take the answer, you won't take the answer. "

Like Liu Qing, there are many women who choose to be crowdsourcing riders to take care of their children. Sun Ping, assistant researcher at the Institute of News and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and her team interviewed 30 female delivery workers from March 2020 to June 2021, 8 of whom chose to crowdsourcing delivery orders for the needs of taking care of their children.

On October 28, 2020, in Jingxi, Guangxi, a female delivery rider returned home, and her son rushed forward and kissed her mother's cheek. Xu Kangping/Visual China Data picture

In Sun Ping's view, most female riders come from the countryside. In traditional families, women often bear more family responsibilities. Takeaway workers have stronger work flexibility and can take into account the responsibilities of education and care for children. This has become a job choice for some women due to helplessness.

According to Sun Ping's observation, the number of female takeaway workers has increased significantly in the past two years. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, industries where female practitioners gathered in foreign trade export industry, tourism industry, education and training industry have been significantly impacted. Many practitioners are facing layoffs, salary cuts, or business suspension. They urgently need a job with low entry threshold, salary advantages, and timely salary payments. The takeaway industry has become their temporary "stop".

survives in the "male system"

Many takeaway riders like to take orders at night because there are fewer vehicles on the road after 9 pm and the delivery fee is higher.

But when it comes to long-distance orders in the middle of the night, Afengjie would rather add a few dollars to the delivery fee than to transfer it to others. She deeply remembered that shortly after she became a rider, she was sent to a deserted cemetery to deliver orders. Customers placed orders for crayfish and other midnight snacks in three times, with a delivery fee of more than 60 yuan.

When she navigated to a few hundred meters away from her destination, she had to build a road in front of her, and she could only go around the small road. "There is no street lights on the road, no signposts , and a large truck pulled the soil was driving in front of me, and I looked gray after eating. "When turning, with the light of the truck, she saw the sign of the cemetery standing next to her and was scared to death.

"I was particularly afraid of wild wolves, wild dogs, , or electric vehicles breaking down here. "In order to strengthen her courage, when she returned the same way, she called her male colleague and kept talking to hands-free calls to until she saw a place with a light.

In addition to worrying about the potential danger of long-distance orders late at night, menstruation is also one of A Fengjie's worries.

Before becoming a rider, she liked to wear tight jeans, ripped pants, and slit skirts. But in order to avoid the sudden menstrual period on the way to send a single, she only dared to work in dark pants. "Since sometimes there is no toilet on the road, it is embarrassing to get your pants dirty. "

In addition, A Fengjie's menstrual period reaction was severe, "I was so tired that I lay in bed and didn't want to eat. "Every time she reaches her menstrual period, she has to ask the webmaster for a temporary leave and rest at home for two days. The food delivery platform she is located in is dedicated to delivering riders only two days off every month, which makes her never have the opportunity to go to the park for a skirt during a comfortable and good weather holiday.

Generally speaking, a food delivery rider needs to complete the entire process of picking up, waiting for meals, and delivering food within 30 minutes when receiving an order within 3 kilometers. In 2019, Sun Ping's team conducted an experiment to deliver food without speeding up and complying with traffic rules, which would show that the order was timed out.The three takeaway riders interviewed all said that in order not to exceed the time and complete more orders and deliver more orders, "Electric vehicles without riders have not been modified."

A Fengjie found that many male riders in the industry rode motorcycles to deliver takeaway. The speed reached 80km/h when the speed was fast, but almost all female riders did not have a motorcycle driver's license. They all rode electric vehicles. Even if the speed limit was increased when buying a car, they could only drive 40km/h at the fastest.

November 28, 2018, Xi'an, a takeaway rider rode an electric bike through the streets and alleys of Qujiang. Visual China Data picture

Due to the heavy front of the motorcycle, most female riders do not have enough strength to control the direction. In addition, the fuel consumption of motorcycles per 100 kilometers is generally 2.5-3 liters, which means that the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers is nearly 25 yuan. If the rider runs a small number of orders per unit time, it is not as cost-effective as using an electric vehicle.

A Fengjie runs 10 orders, and male riders can run 15 orders. In order to make a sigh of relief, she once continued to run orders while others were resting and having dinner, hoping to earn back the five orders she had left. "As a result, I didn't eat well, drink well, and didn't have a good rest. Later, I thought about forgetting it, I can't be serious about myself for thirty or forty yuan."

Now, she has completed her set goal of 300 yuan every day and then stopped working, no longer compared herself with the male rider, or asked the other party, "How many orders did she run today?"

Liu Qing also had moments of anxiety about her speed being too slow.

She does not have an motorcycle driver's license , and she is also afraid of accidents, so she dare not drive the electric car too fast. When a customer asks for an order, he has to park the car before he dares to answer the phone. In non-motorized vehicle lanes, if any rider wants to overtake, he will take the initiative to avoid it. But she often sees male riders holding the handlebars with one hand and answering the phone with the other, and their speed is like flying. "I'm scared when I see them riding bikes. I'm really trying to kill myself on the road." There are usually many riders gathering in front of the entrance of the large supermarket. For some supermarket orders weighing more than 20 kilograms, the delivery fee can reach 10-15 yuan, such as delivering boxes of barreled water, 1.5 liters of cooking oil, rice, watermelon, etc. After taking several such orders, Liu Qing was sore all over, and plaster was applied to her shoulders and back. She couldn't recover for a long time. She took the initiative to turn her attention to orders with a delivery fee of 3-5 yuan for pharmacies and convenience stores.

Liu Qing once conducted a questionnaire: "When grabbing orders, what information do you most want to see on the order?" She replied: "My only wish is to display the weight of the order."

Sun Ping described that the algorithm system of the takeaway system is built according to the body and spirit of a man, and has a very obvious masculinity in terms of labor intensity, management rules, etc. "Most of the data sources of the algorithm backend are based on the standards set by male data, so more and more women will feel obvious discomfort when joining this industry."

Some takeaway sites in some places will be classified according to the difficulty of delivery. Sun Ping explained that for example, some sites have high work intensity, very many orders during peak hours, large order weight, and are particularly prone to timeout, with many restrictions on various conditions, and the delivery price of orders is also higher. Women face some inherent shortcomings. It is very hard to run orders of 10 yuan per order. They will automatically sink to a relatively easy site with low order prices. Even if they go to a site with a high difficulty level to apply for a job, the riders at the site will say, "You can't do this place." "We didn't have female riders before, and we recruited all capable men."

March 5, 2019, a 51-year-old female takeaway rider in Chongqing was delivering orders. Visual China Data Picture

Compared with physical weakness, how to "balance" and take care of your daughter and rider work makes Liu Qing feel more powerless.

"Sometimes the child is on holiday and takes her to deliver food. Even if he is anxious, he would rather be slower than running a red light or going against the flow." When Liu Qing took her daughter to deliver orders, she only grabbed one or two orders at a time. When she encountered a community with amusement facilities, she would stay with her daughter for a while. This also means that taking your daughter to deliver food, your daily income is only half of what you usually do, less than one hundred yuan.

At the same time, she was afraid of being gossiped about - "Also bringing children to deliver takeout?" and the special care of others.For example, when the security guard in the mall saw her picking up food with her children, he advised her: "There is no money to earn." When waiting for the traffic light, the traffic police also blamed her: "How safe is it to bring your children to deliver food?"

Once, it was raining on the platform and the delivery fee was higher. She asked her daughter to stand under the eaves of the bank next to her to shelter from the rain and go to the store to pick up food by herself. After returning, I found that my daughter was holding a coat left by a kind-hearted person in her hand.

Liu Qing often feels guilty, but she can't think of a better way. Her parents and in-laws are both in their hometown, and her husband works in a restaurant and gets off work at 10 p.m. every night. If she doesn't take her daughter out to deliver takeout, she is afraid that her daughter will not dare to go out to the bathroom because she is afraid of the wild cats in the alley; she is afraid that her daughter will get lost when she goes out to play with the children; she is also afraid that her daughter will not be able to eat a bite of hot food.

In her impression, she ordered takeout for her daughter who was alone at home. Because her daughter did not see the sealed opening next to the takeout box, the lid was almost smashed and it didn't open it. At the peak of the afternoon, my daughter called her five or six times. She felt sorry for her daughter, but she could only say, "Don't call me again, I'll send it to you quickly and go home."

Another time, my daughter was at home alone and went to her classmate's house to play. When she came back, she searched all the families with children around her, but she didn't see her daughter, so she was afraid that she called the police. She said: "Since that time, I have never left my daughter alone at home."

"Degenderization" and "expressing weakness"

In Sun Ping's observation, female riders usually adopt two survival strategies in order to adapt to the masculine working environment: the first is to turn on the "hard" mode, package themselves with masculinity, and emphasize that they have the ability to survive in this particularly rough and hard-working industry.

The second type is to show femininity such as "smiling face, sweet mouth, speaking slowly, and being tolerant", and connect and integrate gender identity with rider identity, thereby achieving a "gender turnaround" and transforming "labor showing weakness" into "advantage labor".

"Degenerative" is like a layer of protective color for female riders in the takeaway industry. Zhang Ling, who works as a takeaway rider in Baoshan District, Shanghai, adopts the first model. She often laughed at herself as saying that “the male rider doesn’t treat me as a woman.”

April 10, 2017, a female rider born in 1994 in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province is delivering takeaway to customers. Visual China Data Picture

Before entering the industry for takeaway rider at the end of 2021, she worked in the canteen of a furniture factory. "Love beauty" is her first impression on others. Others cook in aprons, but she never wears them. Instead, she likes to wear high-waisted miniskirts and , and she has to put on makeup every day at work.

But after becoming a takeaway rider, her takeaway platform requires riders to wear uniform work clothes and helmets every day. "I can't be particular about it." The winter in Shanghai is a bit wet and cold, and she often wraps herself into rice dumplings and wears fat work clothes outside. Since she had to wear a helmet, her eyebrows would be covered by the helmet when she drew them, she simply applied a layer of sun protection to go out. From a distance, it would be difficult to tell her gender if it weren't for a pair of ponytails exposed with her helmet.

Zhang Ling’s site has more than 70 riders, and she often ranks in the top three in the site. Every time the rider ranking is updated, there are male riders in the group to discuss: "You guys are not as good as a woman."

chose the job of takeaway rider. Zhang Ling's purpose is very clear, which is to make more money. Her hometown is in rural Sichuan. Her 14-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son are both studying. The family decorated the house a few years ago and owed a lot of foreign debts. She said: "As long as you can make money, I am willing to ask me to wash the toilet, and I don't care."

In order to gain more living space and opportunities in this male-advantage industry, she went online to take orders at around 7 a.m. every day, which was one hour ahead of most riders, and grabbed orders that could not be distributed on the backstage. When she catches up with the peak food delivery period, even if the customer's community has an elevator, if the floor is not high, she will climb the stairs to deliver food, in order to save time waiting for the elevator. In early April, when the epidemic broke out in Shanghai, public toilets were temporarily closed. She didn't drink a sip of water until she had no choice but to go to the bathroom when she returned to the dormitory for dinner at 2 pm.

In Zhang Ling's opinion, "My car can carry 40 kilograms of things, so I try to give 40 kilograms of things myself. As long as I can endure hardship, women are no worse than men's."

A Fengjie's idea is different. She said: "After all, we are a woman, and we should show weakness if we should show weakness."

Sun Ping and his research team also mentioned in the paper "Platform, Gender and Labor: Gender Exhibition of "Female Riders"" that some female riders will not blindly choose to prove that they are not inferior to men's physical strength and ability, but actively dispatch peripheral resources and seek help by following traditional gender norms, that is, recognizing and using the identity of "weak woman".

During the rush hour of noon, the elevators in the office buildings are always crowded. In order to hurry, A Fengjie often shouted in a crisp voice: "Which handsome guy is going to the sixth floor? Do a favor and help me put the meal on the sixth floor shelf." "Others will help 100%, and they will be happy if they are a little sweet," said A Fengjie.

When the order is too heavy, the tire is stuck with nails, or in special weather, she will call the customer in advance to explain and strive for the other party's understanding.

Once, the customer ordered 16 lunch boxes and 32 bottles of drinks in an order. The delivery fee was 8 yuan, which was 1.1 kilometers away, but she couldn't get that much. She was embarrassed to ask her male colleagues to help at Wu Gaofeng, so she tentatively asked the customer if she could help her. The other party drove to the traffic light intersection and waited for her. She picked up the food in three trips and delivered it to the opposite side of the road.

But there will be a time when you hit a wall within ten times. On a rainy day, she explained to a customer who ordered wontons: "If you run out of trouble, wonton soup is easy to sprinkle. Wait patiently for a while. If you are anxious, you can also cancel the order." But when you put down the phone, the other party complained that she had a bad attitude and asked her not to hang up the phone and give her order as soon as possible.

A Fengjie felt wronged. A male rider taught her and said directly next time: "I can't send it to you on a rainy day, so you can retreat." Or, "I'm going to be half an hour late, can you wait? If you can't wait, you can give up." Don't explain so much, let alone spill the soup, take the responsibility on yourself.

A Fengjie realized that compared with men, women are often more willing to think from the perspective of others and communicate with customers with more patience, but not direct enough expressions are more likely to cause misunderstandings and even damage their own interests.

scrutinized eyes

A Fengjie loves beauty. Every morning when she goes out, she spends an hour dressing up, liquid foundation, sunscreen, mascara, eyeshadow, and eyeliner, and then put on clean quick-drying clothes and spotless coconut shoes to go out. On the way to deliver the takeaway, every two hours, she had to go to the public bathroom to take out sun protection, wipe off the mascara with her lower eyelids, and replenish it again. When she was picking up the food, she didn't snatch or talk, but just stood there and waited to call the number. Others asked her, "Who are you waiting for?" "I'll wait for the order." The other party often took a small step back and looked her up and down, "You're so clean, not like a takeaway."

She chatted with her colleagues and said that she spent four or five hundred yuan on cosmetics every month, used up a bottle of sunscreen a month, and applied a facial mask when she went back at night. Some female riders were surprised, "Do you still have time to apply a facial mask?" Some male riders also said that she was a "prodigal girl".

She never gets angry, but she will correct the other party, "I am not a spendthrift. Like a man smoking, everyone pursues a different quality of life." Looking back on her days when she was doing business in her hometown, she liked to wear lambskin fashion shoes with skirts and ripped jeans with cartoon patterns. She bought more than ten lipsticks from first-tier brands at a time, and she felt that her quality of life has declined a lot now.

November 11, 2020, Shenyang, a female takeaway rider. Visual China Data Picture

Regarding the job of takeaway rider, A Fengjie admitted that she lacked recognition in her heart, and the inferiority of the profession has accumulated through her personal experiences. "This profession is relatively low-level in society and is not respected."

She remembers that she went to a cafe for coffee and did not take off her work clothes. The waiter recommended her a cup of coffee worth 10 yuan, but most of the coffee on the ordering display in the store cost more than 40 yuan. This made her feel offended.

When going to the movie, the ticket inspector would carefully look at her in work clothes. Sometimes when you enter high-end shopping malls or go to high-end communities to deliver food, you may be asked by the security guard to take off your work clothes and go in, or call the customer to come down and pick it up.

She couldn't understand, "I'm not a deliveryman after taking off the work clothes? Since society needs the role of a deliveryman, why do others look at us with strange eyes?" Faced with these subtle setbacks, she could only comfort herself, "When my sister is rich, she will charge 10,000 cards at one time and be casual in front of them."

Compared to the embarrassment and contempt she encountered outside, what really made her sad was the incomprehension of her husband.

Once on a rainy day, A Fengjie fell on the road while delivering takeout. When she went home, she told her husband that the other party not only did not comfort her, but instead criticized her: "Why are you so stupid? If others don't fall, you will fall."

She still remembers that when she came to Beijing for more than half a year, she used up a bottle of Armani perfume she brought from her hometown, but she couldn't bear to buy another bottle. She hoped that her husband could give her a bottle as a birthday gift. But the husband said, "You are taking out food and spraying yourself so fragrant. Are you seducing a man?"

In the end, A Fengjie bought perfume herself, but she didn't buy Armani's.

These two experiences were like a thorn piercing into A Fengjie's heart.

In the interview, Sun Ping also pointed out that this society has never stopped scrutinizing women. From the earliest days when women were kept in the boudoir, to now they are engaged in meticulous, light and decent work in offices. But female takeaway riders are opposite to the female representations we imagine or society expect, so the psychological pressure they face is huge. The webmaster of the

site also said to A Fengjie: "Can you make yourself like a deliveryman?" She retorted: "What should a deliveryman be like? You must have to be plain and can't even apply nail polish? Is there no freedom left?"

"The environment believes that a takeaway person should not make herself so delicate." She wore work clothes and no high heels according to the company's requirements. In addition, she was unwilling to make any compromises for the eyes of others.

When she rides a bicycle and waits for traffic lights, women often stop her: "Sister, do you want to make money by running this place? What are the requirements?" A Fengjie feels that behind the increasing number of female riders, women also have to make money, no longer like in the past, just take good care of her husband and children at home.

She talks with her daughter who is in junior high school every day, but she never tells her children what job she does in Beijing. She hopes to take advantage of the fact that she can do more now and then slowly change careers when she encounters other opportunities. Or save enough money to start a fund and open a small store in Hainan to sell fruits and flowers.

Every time I pick up my daughter from school, Liu Qing would deliberately hide his identity as a rider, park his electric bike far away from the main entrance of the school, prepare a cotton horse clip or windbreaker in the takeaway box, wear it outside the work clothes before picking up his daughter. She described "As soon as she arrived at the school gate, her (aura) immediately became 1.2 meters, afraid that others would see it."

"I was worried that I would be as good as other mothers and be looked down upon by others." This is a hurdle that Liu Qing could never overcome. She remembered that one time, she came to school to pick up her daughter because she was delivered the wrong order late. The teacher wanted to call her and urge her, but her daughter stopped her, "Don't call my mother. My mother delivers takeaways. If you want to call her, she will fall down when she is anxious." After she knew, she was angry and funny: "I hide it every day, afraid that others will know that I am a rider, so why did you tell the teacher?"

My daughter didn't care at all and praised her: "The job you did is great and hard. Many places of the epidemic have been blocked. If there is no deliveryman, they will not receive many things." Liu Qing found that the person who really feels inferior was actually herself.

At home, Liu Qing is also a "pillar". She has to make money to support her family, and she also has to wash clothes, cook, pick up and drop off her children. Even during the breastfeeding period, she is responsible for breastfeeding, changing diapers, and coaxing her daughter to sleep alone.

Whenever she is physically and mentally exhausted, she will get angry at the child’s father. “He works in a hotel and is always very busy on holidays and weekends. Usually, the child cannot pick him up and send him away.” She hopes that her husband can also participate in parenting, not treating her as a "robot" or "iron man".

Liu Qing likes the freedom of riders to work, but does not plan to engage in it for a long time. "Because I don't pay social security for this job, I now pay more than 1,100 yuan of social security every month."

She hopes to find a formal job that can be insured and not delay picking up and dropping off children. If the epidemic is better, she plans to open a cake shop. "I grew up in my hometown and rarely ate cakes. After I came out to work, I only bought cakes on my birthday. I have always liked this thing very much." After the afternoon peak of

, Zhang Ling had a rare time to rest. She likes to lie in the direction of the sun, play with her cell phone for a while, take out the cookies and candies she prepared from the takeaway box and stuff them into her mouth, and feel the little sweetness in life.

She said: "In two years, if you pay back the foreign debts from your family, you will go home and stay with your children."

Editor-in-charge: Huang Jijie Picture editor: Shi Jiahui

Proofreading: Ding Xiao