Wang Jibing, a super Internet celebrity delivery person in 2023 and a "delivery poet" who successfully broke through the industry.
He was once a hard-working sand collector, a construction worker, a street vendor, and even a scavenger... After engaging in many professions, he settled on the job of a delivery boy.
In the first half of his life, Wang Jibing always lived in a "low place". The life in a low place allowed him to observe and understand the things and people around him in a more meticulous way.
"Who said spreading your wings means flying high/flying from low places is also flying/there is also the sound of wind like birdsong/and wheels like shooting stars..." Even though we live in a "low place", we can still "fly" to distant places.
Wang Jibing's third poetry collection "Flying Low" is newly released by Writers Publishing House.
In this collection of poems, Wang Jibing explores the life, spirit and emotions of a deliveryman, and also writes about his observations and thoughts about the world.
In an exclusive interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, Wang Jibing admitted: "No matter how life changes, Wang Jibing will still be Wang Jibing. He will not change. He is still the Wang Jibing who likes to write, writes hard, and lives seriously."
I interviewed about 100 delivery boys and very few of them told them that I write poetry.
Reporter: Is there any difference between "Flying Low" and the previous two poetry collections?
If you could describe it in one word or label, how would you describe it?
Wang Jibing: If the first two collections of poems are a representation of my own life, this collection of poems affects more of a group.
Since I have appeared in front of the public as a delivery person in the past two years, I want to present our group to readers and do something for this group with a clearer direction.
I hope this book will bring the distance between customers and delivery boys closer, making the relationship more harmonious and beautiful.
If I use words or labels to describe it, it should be attitude and freshness.
This collection of poems expresses more of my attitude towards life and life.
The freshness comes from 2023. My life has undergone earth-shaking changes and I have been exposed to too many new things.
Because this is a collection of poems, I cannot be limited to expressing just the group of delivery boys.
Last year I traveled all over the country and even abroad, and I integrated some of my experiences and thoughts into this collection of poems.
The scope of this collection of poems will be broader than the previous two.
Reporter: "Flying Low" is a tribute to the delivery boy, and also to all people who are busy with life. When you created this collection of poems, did you set the theme in advance?
Wang Jibing: Yes.
When I first created this collection of poems, I distributed a questionnaire to the delivery boys and set several questions: 1. What kind of work did you do before delivering food?
Second, what is the biggest difficulty and the most unhappy thing you have encountered since you started working as a delivery boy?
3. What is the warmest, most touching, and happiest thing you have encountered while delivering food?
Fourth, how long do you plan to work as a delivery boy?
What are you going to do if you don't work as a delivery boy?
Later, I found that everyone's answers were highly similar, so I changed another method - chatting with them in person.
Face-to-face interviews will be more flexible. I will avoid recording repetitive stories and look for new story points before creating them.
The creation of this collection of poems originally came from a hot topic, which is the topic of whether Kong Yiji can take off his long gown. From this, I also extended the topic to the topic of delivery boys, that is, whether delivery boys deliver food or not. Takeaway talk.
Reporter: How many takeaway guys have you interviewed?
Is there a story behind this?
For example, what happened to the delivery boy who ignored you in the poem?
Wang Jibing: I haven’t counted carefully. From questionnaires to face-to-face interviews, there are about 100 delivery boys. Many of their experiences are similar, so I need to constantly adjust.
Among them, the one who impressed me the most was the delivery boy who broke eight ribs. His rear brake failed when he was going downhill from a bridge on a rainy day.
He applied the front brake, causing the vehicle to overturn. The overturned vehicle hit his ribs, breaking eight of them, causing him to pass out on the spot.
What surprised me was that when he told this story, he told me with a smile.
There are many stories, and some of the most impressive ones are some female delivery workers. You must know that female delivery workers are actually in a relatively weak state.
These will have a profound impact on me.
The delivery guy who ignored me later let it go because we often don’t want to be disturbed. There were also some grumpy delivery guys who scolded me and even verbally insulted me because every time Individual moods will be different, which is understandable.
Reporter: When you interviewed them, you did not reveal your identity as a poet. Do any of your delivery boy friends know that you write poetry?
What do they think of you writing poetry?
Wang Jibing: Very, very rarely, unless there are some delivery guys I know in life, they will know that I write poetry. I don’t want to bring this identity that has nothing to do with life into my life.
It will also disturb my normal work, because I usually have to work as a delivery boy and have to race against time. If there are some additional interferences, the work will be very difficult.
Occasionally, I will reveal my writing status to my brother. I always wear work clothes and a mask, and there is still a certain amount of coverage.
They would also be surprised when they knew I was writing.
I never thought about writing full-time, but insisted on being a delivery boy because it is a kind of kindness.
Reporter: Some of the poems in "Flying Low" are narrative in nature, such as the delivery boy who jumped into the river to save people. How do you think the storytelling can be integrated into the leaping poems?
Wang Jibing: Narrativeness should be a characteristic of my poetry writing, and it is also a characteristic that is different from the writing of me and other teachers in my field.
I even want to make a collection of poems into a history of poetry, a presentation of history. I hope that everyone can find clues to the years in my poems and connect them to the characteristics of life in an era.
Of course, this is just my personal best wish, and it is also limited by my own performance level.
The presentation of the story and the poetic jump require one's own thinking.
I like to have a turning point at the end of each poem, either to leave some thoughts, or to divert the original narrative clues and introduce another level of thinking, making a work appear three-dimensional.
Reporter: There are many stories about the takeaway boy. Have you ever thought about trying to break through the form of poetry and record and present it in more ways?
Wang Jibing: This is true. I originally wrote this collection of poems. During the interview, I came up with the idea that one book is based on a collection of poems, and the other one I want to simultaneously present the story in a recorded way, or present a non-fiction story. , later I found that there are problems with this kind of writing. Most of them have wonderful stories, such as the little brother who broke eight ribs. He refused me to record his life in a clear way, because in this case, there would be many familiar things to him. If people can read about him in his works, it will interfere with his life. He doesn't want me to do this.
And some of those who agreed to use this method, their stories were not exciting enough. This is a contradiction.
Let’s talk about it later, let’s use a book of poems as a foreshadowing.
Reporter: You are busy now. It is said that your delivery rider account has been downgraded from "gold" to "ordinary" level for novices. If you are so busy, why do you still insist on being a delivery rider?
Have you ever thought about writing full-time?
Wang Jibing: I never thought about writing full-time.
To be honest, I am an ordinary writing enthusiast. If I am different from other ordinary writing enthusiasts, if I have to find one strong point, it is my love and persistence in writing.
Maybe it’s due to my personality. If I like something, I will stick to it for a long time.
But writing full-time, I always feel that I am not qualified enough.
I am in a writing state where hard work can make up for my shortcomings. For example, I created so many works last year, but I was not satisfied with many of them. I am particularly aware of my own creative level.
The reason I insist on being a delivery person is because I got extra attention as a delivery person and got a lot of extra points, which is why I have the results I have today. This is a kind of kindness.
This kind of kindness will make me feel heavy. I hope to repay this kind of kindness down to earth. At the same time, I also believe that any blessing from public opinion has a time limit.
In the near future, I will still return to my essential life, and my essential life is that of a delivery boy. I support my family by delivering food. At the same time, I also use actions to answer the attention of the Internet. Wang Jibing is still Wang Jibing, he does not Will change.
Writing resolves emotions and makes a person more calm and steady.
Reporter: How long does it usually take you to compose a poem?
How can you write poetry about everything you see and think?
Do you think writing poetry is related to your personality?
Wang Jibing: The lifestyle habit of delivering food over the years has changed my writing style. Now I mostly use voice creation, which is not limited by time and is real-time, anytime and anywhere.
For example, when I'm on my way to deliver food, even while waiting for a traffic light, if I see something happening on the side of the road that inspires me, I will quickly leave a voice message to myself.
If it is a short poem, of course most of my poems are short. That is to say, under normal circumstances, the prototype of my poem is calculated in seconds, and then I convert the speech into text and modify it. If it's valuable, I'll fix the poem. If it's not valuable, it's just a few more nonsense words, so just delete it.
There are also some that are retained twice on the computer.
If you feel that it has no meaning, you will throw it there. It doesn't matter whether you delete it or not, it will just be forgotten there.
My creation should have a certain relationship with my personality. Of course, it also has something to do with my work environment and living conditions. There are many factors.
Converting everyday thoughts and sights into poetry is a matter of personification.
I only have the education level of the second grade of junior high school. When I was in elementary school, my teacher taught me how to use personification in composition, and poetry should be considered as the same thing.
Seize the different points in life, even if it is a different leaf on a tree, give it life, give it character, and express it, this is the presentation of a poem.
As for the quality of presentation, it depends on the level of the creator, which is another level of issue.
Reporter: Can you tell us about your process of creating a poem?
For example, how do you find inspiration, how do you capture what touches you the most, and what kind of thinking do you go through when turning it into words?
Wang Jibing: The paper is silent//When the beads are burning/It keeps shouting/When the leaves are burning/It whispers quietly/When the wood is burning/It also moans/I often guess the meaning of those sounds/Is it excitement, anger/or struggle?
/ But what worries me right now is that / those papers / those thousands of words / seven emotions and six desires / one by one did not make a sound when they were turned into ashes.
Just like this poem, I was in the dressing room of a rehearsal. The makeup artist opened a bottle of mousse and made a popping sound, like a firecracker.
I wrote this poem by association layer by layer.
In the end, it expresses an attitude and gives the paper more mission, because paper is also a voice in a sense, an appearance of our voice.
And this kind of burning contains multiple meanings. What is written on this paper?
Why burn?
This provides food for thought beyond the poem.
Reporter: Are you writing poetry more and more smoothly now, or is it becoming more and more difficult?
For you, is inspiration for writing poetry more important, or is life more important?
Or something else?
Wang Jibing: Quantitatively speaking, the creation is indeed getting smoother and smoother, and there is a feeling of inspiration bursting out.
But in terms of the requirements for poetry, I feel that it is getting harder and harder to write good poetry.
If you have to choose between writing and life, it must be life. There is no other. Life is the most important.
Life is the fundamental existence of all our things. Without the fundamental, everything is nonsense.
Reporter: You have experienced many ups and downs in the process of delivering food, and your manuscripts have been burned on the road of literature. When you faced these pains, how did you come out?
Wang Jibing: The manuscript burning incident actually caused some trouble to me. It lasted for more than two months, and then I met love.
The diverted attention also resolved that emotion.
Later, after being tempered by life and thinking repeatedly, I became more and more calm.
In fact, I attribute it to the power of words, including the various situations I encounter when delivering food, and I even said that I would be grateful for the inspiration brought by those experiences.
Reporter: After so much, how do you feel when you look back on the past?
What are your regrets?
Which ones are lucky?
Wang Jibing: I feel that no experience is in vain.
Life is inherently a wonderful experience, and sometimes I even believe that there is a sense of arrangement somewhere along the way.
Writing resolves emotions and makes a person more calm and steady.
Hobbies generate faith, and faith provides a powerful force.
Regrets are a normal part of life. Big regrets are out of the question. Small regrets are a normal part of life.
Luck depends on how you understand it. Just like happiness, it is an inner feeling.
Happiness is not concrete, it is the inner understanding of life.
Of course, being blessed by the media and friends when writing is a huge blessing in itself.
After becoming famous, the pressure comes more from thinking about writing and responding to media attention.
Reporter: You are so famous now, have you ever been recognized by customers when delivering food?
Any interesting stories?
Wang Jibing: Yes, there are promotional videos about me on buses and subways in Kunshan. The publicity is quite strong, so I occasionally encounter situations where I am recognized by customers at work.
Because I wear a mask most of the time, when I recognize him, I will jokingly say, "There was a person who said the same thing just now. It seems that I look very similar to that person. I must get to know him if I have the chance."
Because I am at work, if I don’t chat with others, it will be rude. If I do, it will affect my order delivery time.
Reporter: Are there "troubles of fame" and a lot of pressure?
What impact does it have on your life and creation?
What kind of creative state do you want yourself to be in?
Wang Jibing: There is pressure, but it can’t be said to be very big. It comes more from my thinking about writing and my response to media attention. I’m thinking about what I should do to be worthy of everyone. More pressure. From this aspect.
In life, because you participate in many activities, you have an irregular life, which sometimes makes you panic.
Because I don’t know what will happen next.
I am worried about my performance, and there have been some instances where I have been criticized or questioned by netizens for inappropriate speech and behavior.
In terms of creation, 2023 will be the highest peak of my creation. As I continue to participate in various activities, travel around and come into contact with too many new things.
These new things will inspire a writer.
So last year was also the peak of my creation. The lowest month I created was 60 songs, and the highest month I created 126 songs.
This is the best creative state I have experienced so far.
It's never been this productive before, and the future hasn't happened yet, so I can't give a concrete answer yet.
Joining the Chinese Writers Association makes my life more interesting
Reporter: You joined the Chinese Writers Association last year. Does it mean anything to you?
What does literature mean to you?
Wang Jibing: Joining the Writers' Association, especially the Chinese Writers' Association, is a recognition and affirmation of my writing for more than 30 years.
As I said at the conference, I have changed from me to us. I have a hobby for literature, which serves as a bridge between life and thought and has become a road. This feeling will make me look forward to the future even more. , Make my life, my life more interesting.
Reporter: Are your children affected by your poetry writing?
Wang Jibing: The impact is still there. My family members all feel very proud. The second daughter is more affected. She is very interested in writing. She has already received some royalties, which is beyond my expectation.
However, now my children think that their writing techniques are still relatively childish and they are not willing to communicate with me. They are just working hard silently. This is also something that makes me feel very happy.
Reporter: Do you usually read a lot?
What categories do you like to watch?
Wang Jibing: Basically, it depends on my work status. If I have enough time at work, I will basically spend my free time reading, but it will be fragmented reading.
Until now, I have not read books systematically, which is quite a pity. Just like some wonderful poems, everyone says that this poem is particularly good, but I often cannot understand it.
This may be related to my reading direction. I am also trying to adjust my reading direction and read some theoretical books.
In recent years, since my main energy has been devoted to the creation of poetry, most of my reading has been focused on poetry.
Reporter: What would you say to those who also have dreams but are trapped by their livelihood?
Wang Jibing: I feel deeply that life comes first.
Dreams are the regulator of our lives.
This is a one-time problem. I especially don’t want us to regard hobbies as the main body of life and then put our lives in an embarrassing state.
We must first solve the main body of our own life and let our dreams accompany us. Only in this way can we live calmly and enjoy life.
Rather than the other way around.
I have always had the feeling that life is solid, even though it may be irregular at times, but hobbies must be liquid.
Reporter: What changes do you hope to make in writing or life in 2024?
Wang Jibing: As for the direction of life in 2024, I don’t have much idea for the time being. I will still work hard to run a small shop in my home, do a good job in takeout, and maintain a stable development of family income.
Of course, I definitely need to take a bigger step forward in my writing. I originally planned to publish a collection of poems before the year and the end of the year.
Now the collection of poems from the year before has been published, and the collection of poems at the end of the year is being created. At the same time, I am also trying to write in other themes, such as non-fiction and novels. I am trying to write.
Life has paved the way for me, and I must run forward.
Text/reporter Zhang Jia
Photo courtesy/Wang Jibing