China’s delivery drivers are its most obvious underclass

CHINESE cities can look like a tableau of bold colours, as delivery drivers on scooters – some yellow, orange or blue – zip through traffic bearing cargo for waiting customers.

It is in the distant outskirts that the colours come to a rest. Amid the warrens of buildings, drivers rent cheap rooms, park their scooters in the narrow streets and hang their matching jackets from windows to air them out.

One colour absent from their uniforms – each associated with a different delivery service – is gloomy grey. But speak to them as they return home, and that is the dominant hue.