Running the City Without Sound. Deaf Couriers in Shanghai
China Daily
25th December 2025
Running the City Without Sound. Deaf Couriers in Shanghai
In Shanghai, a delivery station for deaf riders raises a larger question: what does inclusive work look like in the digital economy?
At 7:09am, food courier Sun Jingjing received her first order of the day: a Starbucks coffee to be delivered to a high-rise residential building 1 kilometer away. For the next two hours, she wove through malls, residential blocks, and office towers, jogging past commuters heading to work – all in silence.
Sun is a deaf courier. At her delivery station, there are 17 full-time deaf riders like her. Many of them previously worked in factories or restaurant kitchens, earning modest incomes and rarely encountering other deaf people. Life often felt lonely.
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