An island's women on wheels

A group of female delivery riders gathers on Qushan Island's wharf for a photo.(Photo provided by Xie Hailong/For China Daily)

Part of the Zhoushan Islands in China's Zhejiang province, hundreds of kilometers from the mainland, lies Qushan Island, home to fewer than 100,000 residents.

Life here revolves around a main road, which is a narrow stretch lined with schools, a clinic, a handful of shops, four bubble-tea cafes, and a lone coffeehouse. This modest cluster forms the island's "central business district". Yet, in the past year, it has become the stage for an extraordinary cast of women.

They are mothers averaging 40 years of age who have traded the predictable rhythms of domestic life for the hum of electric scooters and the uniform of the island's delivery service. Day after day, clad in orange and black, they navigate winding lanes and stair-stepped alleyways, threading the island together one takeout order at a time.

Once tied to roles defined by family and circumstance, such as wives awaiting fishermen at sea, and mothers trapped in part-time work, they now claim a new agency in these small, daily movements, quietly "rebuilding themselves" with every delivery.

From February to March this year, renowned Chinese photographer Xie Hailong, whose work has chronicled ordinary lives for 35 years, visited Qushan, drawn by curiosity.