Rickshaw Boy is the story of Xiangzi, an honest and serious country boy who works as a rickshaw puller in Beiping (Beijing). A man of simple needs whose greatest ambition is to one day own his own rickshaw, Xiangzi is nonetheless thwarted, time and again, in his attempts to improve his lot in life.

Rickshaw Boy is one of the most influential and popular works of twentieth-century Chinese literature. It presents an unflinchingly honest portrait of life on the margins of society, intertwining dark comedy with tragedy in a searing indictment of the philosophy of individualism.