HKU Bulletin August 2010 (Vol. 11 No. 3)

16 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin 17 August 2010 A martial arts performance. Many labourers from Shandong and Hubei were skilled in martial arts and were selected as gangers for their strength and endurance. Chinese labourers transporting shells at Proven, Belgium, 1917. Chinese labourers travelled across Canada by train in 1917. IN THE LINE OF FIRE chinese peasants on the western front The little-known story of China’s role in the First World War is being brought to light through the remarkable research of historian Xu Guoqi. 02 Until now, the tale of how 140,000 Chinese peasants travelled to France to dig trenches on the Western Front, and work in munitions factories in French towns, has been largely consigned to oblivion – thanks to the secrecy surrounding their contribution. It is a secret that has been conveniently kept, for almost a century, by both the allies and the Chinese. But, for the last ten years, Professor Xu, Associate Professor in the Department of History, has been following the trail of these mystery recruits. It is a path that has led him across the globe from Shandong Province to Europe, Canada and America. He first stumbled upon the subject while researching his Harvard University PhD on China and the Great War , later published as a book by Cambridge University Press, 2005. “When I worked on that book I noticed this issue,” he says. “In 2008 I sponsored a conference in Weihai, Shandong Province on this subject, which is where most of the workers came from. It generated enormous media attention in China and resulted in a six-part documentary by China Central Television and one book of photographs and another of conference papers. The story of these Chinese labourers, most of them illiterate farmers, has taken both the public and many historians by surprise because, as Professor Xu points out, “Even the Chinese government played a part in the cover-up.” The reason? “China, a neutral state until 1917, did not want Germany to know it had co-operated with the allies, and its officials always downplayed the importance of the labourers’ recruitment.” They were helped in their task by the illiterateness of the labourers who were unable to keep diaries, or pen memoirs, detailing their experiences in Europe. However, Professor Xu’s detective work has unearthed materials such as YMCA reports as well diaries and personal letters of officers who had daily contacts with the Chinese labourers. His research has also thrown light on the Chinese government’s desire for internationalization and its ambitions to join the community of nations as an equal member. “The thinking went, that volunteering to have Chinese labourers work alongside westerners in France would forge crucial links between China and the West,” he explains. A further motivation was China’s hope of recovering Shandong Province, part of which had been a German concession since 1898. “Unfortunately, when Japan entered the War on the side of the allies in 1914, they did all their actual fighting on Shandong soil and soon took over the province.” Later, the decision of the great powers to allow Japan to keep Shandong at the post-war peace conference, triggered the May Fourth Movement in China. Professor Xu has helped add a human element to this period in history by uncovering stories of how several Chinese workers fell for French women – some never to return home. One man, he says, married his 16-year-old French sweetheart and they went on to have 13 children. Another love affair did not fare so well. “He tried to bring his French girlfriend through immigration, wrapped in a big military blanket carried over his shoulder, but he was caught and she was sent back to France. I met the grandson of one man, in Shandong Province, who told me that his grandfather’s only regret in life was returning home to China without his French girlfriend. “Part of what made the Chinese attractive to French women was that many of the French men were away in the war and, although the Chinese could not speak French, they had a lot of money because the government provided everything for them – food, clothing, lodgings – so they had a disposable income.” After the war three thousand of them remained in France. Under their original contract with the British and French governments the recruits were exempt from fighting – as China was a neutral state and also a weak state that did not dare to offend Germany. “Although they were not allowed to fight many of them lost their lives, because they were on the frontline digging trenches. According to my research about 3,000 of them died, either on their way to France or in France. For example, during the journey to Europe, a German submarine sank one boat that was carrying Chinese workers, hundreds of them died instantly.” The first group arrived in 1916 to work for the French. Later both Britain and America employed Chinese workers. According to British reports, Professor Xu says, they were excellent trench diggers “because they were quite strong, most of them were aged between 20 and 40 years old and had to pass 25 different physical examinations to qualify”. “Those who worked for the French worked mainly in factories or in the villages, but on the British and American sides they travelled with the soldiers, digging trenches, transporting munitions. The ones who worked for the British suffered badly because they were on the frontline a lot of the time and the British soldiers bullied them. After work they were locked in prison-like camps and were given little freedom, gambling and miscommunication were widespread.” Now Professor Xu hopes that his research, soon to be published in book form by Harvard University Press, will help bring wider recognition of the Chinese labourers’ contribution to the war effort. “Until recently these men have been all but forgotten by their own motherland,” he says. “The time has come to write a thorough international history of their experience. I am hoping this book will serve as a meeting ground between Western and Chinese history and will generate international dialogue about our shared history.” A cemetery of Chinese labourers under British control. Many died of illness or other causes. Research