The biggest workforce in the world has undergone an extraordinary transformation.
China's farm labourers and industrial proletariat have been joined by an army of gig workers.
Tens of millions now use tech platforms to find jobs for fleeting periods.
Fully 200 million or 40% of the urban labour force depend on some kind of flexible work.
The fortunes of these precarious workers,
many of whom struggle to buy property and gain access to public services and benefits,
will shape China's economy and society for years to come.
As technology remakes labour markets, China's gig workers offer lessons for countries everywhere.
Thanks in part to its early embrace of the super-apps that organise many facets of people's lives,
China is home to the world's most advanced gig economy.
Today, 84 million people there rely on platform-based forms of employment,
including ride-hailing drivers and food delivery riders.
As consumer apps have spread, this sort of work has become prevalent across emerging Asia too.
In India, roughly 10 million people work in the gig economy on platforms and off.
In Malaysia, it is 1.2 million, roughly 7% of the labour force.
Lately, gig work in China has spread to its vaunted manufacturing sector.
The regimented proletariat is gradually being replaced by millions of casual workers who fill jobs on demand,
flitting from one factory floor to another at the direction of giant recruitment platforms.
The jobs often require no skills beyond the knowledge of the Roman alphabet.
The workers may stick with them for no more than a few weeks or even days.