Wang Jibing’s Poetry at Full Speed : The Clash between Delivery Labor and Algorithms

Today, platforms function not only as channels of communication connecting individuals and the world but also as a core axis of the global economy. In particular, food delivery platforms, which rapidly expanded after the COVID-19 pandemic, have developed from mere intermediaries between restaurants and consumers into new industries by integrating advanced technologies such as AI recommendation systems and real-time logistics management. However, this process has also intensified labor issues characteristic of the gig economy, including precarious employment, low commissions, unsafe working conditions, lack of social insurance, and algorithmic control.<br/> Such realities have been visualized through online posts, films, and literature, among which “rider poetry” (waimai yuan shige 外卖诗歌) has become a representative cultural form. This study examines the case of Wang Jibing (王计兵), a prominent rider-poet who transformed his experiences of delivery labor into poetry. Gaining initial attention in 2022 with The Man Racing Against Time, he went on to publish the poetry collection The Man Racing Against Time (2023), participate in The Kuaishou Poetry Anthology, and appear in the documentary I Clumsily Love This World (2024), thereby achieving social recognition through platform mediation. Notably, his case reveals an irony: while the delivery platform subjects him to algorithmic control as a laborer, other platforms simultaneously elevate him as a poet and commodify his literary reputation. By analyzing Wang’s poetry and its reception, this study critically interrogates how platform capitalism simultaneously incorporates and reconstructs both labor realities and amateur creativity.