May 31, 2026
Class war, but make it sci-fi
Folding Beijing
A tired worker, sky-high food prices, and readers spiraling over a city built to crush the poor
TLDR: “Folding Beijing” drops readers into the exhausted life of Lao Dao, a poor worker trying to navigate a city where even a meal feels out of reach. The biggest reaction was outrage at how painfully real its class divide feels, with commenters joking through the dread and calling it futuristic in name only.
Readers didn’t just react to “Folding Beijing”—they felt personally attacked by it. The opening follows Lao Dao, a 48-year-old garbage worker nervously putting on his one “good” outfit before heading out into a loud, hungry city at dawn. He’s tired, broke, and painfully aware of how little room dignity has in his life. And that detail about teenagers gawking at absurd food prices? The community latched onto it immediately. Commenters called the story a brutal portrait of inequality, with many saying the real gut-punch is how ordinary the suffering feels: hunger, embarrassment, bargaining, and trying to seem respectable when the system clearly doesn’t care.
But of course, the comments got spicy fast. Some readers praised Hao Jingfang for turning a city scene into a social horror story, while others argued the quiet realism was even more devastating than any big sci-fi twist. A few joked that the most unbelievable part wasn’t the future city at all—it was anyone affording dinner. Others compared Lao Dao’s folded shirt to “the saddest superhero costume ever,” while several readers said the street-food chatter hit harder than any speech about class. The mood in the crowd was a mix of admiration, dread, and very online gallows humor: “This is science fiction,” one vibe went, “but sadly it reads like the comments section under rent prices.” In short, people aren’t just reading this story—they’re using it to vent about work, money, class, and the daily humiliation of getting by.
Key Points
- •The excerpt is from the science-fiction short story "Folding Beijing," published in Uncanny Magazine, written by Hao Jingfang and translated by Ken Liu.
- •The story follows Lao Dao, a 48-year-old single worker at a waste processing station, as he prepares to meet Peng Li before dawn.
- •The setting is a crowded, active urban lane filled with workers, food stalls, street vendors, and early-morning market activity.
- •Lao Dao finds that Peng Li is not home and waits outside the apartment building after a neighbor says Peng usually returns near market closing time.
- •While waiting, Lao Dao overhears teenagers discussing expensive food prices and becomes sharply aware of his own hunger and poverty.