Beijing (AP) – After pressing lunch, it’s time to feed drivers for food delivery to China.
Lea Ligi, in the middle of the 13-hour work day, parks his electric scooter in front of a restaurant in Beijing for his choice of choice, lamb noodles with a side of pickles, for 12 yuan ($ 1.65), a discount of 6 yuan from the usual price.
Food with reduced price is part of a movement that offers free or discount for people in need, without questions asked.
Known as “Aixincan” (Eye-Sheen-Zan) or “Loving Dishes”, they are available in some restaurants in major Chinese cities, home to a large population of migrant workers who come to look for a job.
“There has been a lot of pressure in life since I came to Beijing to work, so eating Aixincan is both economical and practical,” says the 40-year-old Liu, who arrived two years ago from the nearby Schangi province.
He is hot to return to make money, he digs in his eating in a branch of the Yushiji restaurant chain, without even stopping to remove his helmet, Markovo with the name of the popular food delivery app to Ele.me.
The movement, also known as “Suixincan” or “Fowled-the-Heart dishes,” can be traced until the early 2000s. It is included in the state media in China and in the social media, including publications in which influencing ones present themselves as hungry clients who need to emphasize the generosity of restaurants.
Luo Shui, a driver for Meituan, the largest food supply service in China, has learned about Yushiji discounting initiative through colleagues and has since become a daily customer in the Beijing chain that serves food from his native province of Henan.
“This reminded me of my hometown,” says 27-year-old Luo, who moved to Beijing late last year.
Nearly 300 million migrant workers in China have emerged increasingly preference for work based on concerts, such as delivery over factory work in recent years. There are now more than 200 million GIG economy employees, according to government data.
For a full -time driver, the average monthly payment in Meituan can reach more than $ 1,500. But only 11% of app drivers work full -time. Particles in the largest cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are on average to $ 1,000 a month in 2024.
The presence of discount dishes reflects a change in China’s urban landscape, according to Xiang Biao, head of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany.
Before that, migrants could carve their own spaces by helping each other, but these networks have disappeared with the erosion of informal restaurants in cities of hygiene and safety reasons.
“They will have to seek help from strangers,” Xiang said.
State-cleaned cleaning from the late 2000s of the City villages-spaces in which migrants will live, who grow along with urban development-inhabited this pressure.
The stigma of the request of free food exists in all societies, Xiang said, although this may not be a problem for delivery drivers in China, as they are already socially marginalized.
Feng Yong, the 43-year-old Doornail Meat Pie manager, so called, because his food looks like round wooden nail tablecloths on classic Chinese doors-transfers most of his day by mixing, filling and wrapping the pies in the Muslim Chinese restaurant in Pekin.
He said the restaurant started serving Aixincan to help people in need and inspire others to do the same. A native of the province of Shandong, who moved to the Chinese capital more than 20 years ago, Feng said he had a deep understanding of being an outsider fighting in a new city.
The key, he said, is to avoid any disturbance for the customers who need it. Some are hesitant at the entrance. The staff does its best to help and not ask about the circumstances of the potential client.
“We don’t refuse them, as long as they are full,” Feng said.