Strangers on the Western Front : Chinese workers in the Great War / Xu Guoqi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Xu, Guoqi.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918--Conscript labor--Europe.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Chinese.

World War, 1914-1918--Great Britain.

World War, 1914-1918--France.

Foreign workers, Chinese--Europe--History--20th century.

Foreign workers, Chinese.

Working class--China--History--20th century.

Working class.

China--Relations--Great Britain.

China.

China--Relations--France.

Great Britain--Relations--China.

Great Britain.

France--Relations--China.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (367 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a fresh work of history that crosses thematic boundaries: Chinese history, WWI history, world history, migration and labor history. It recovers the lost story of 140,000 Chinese workers, men mostly from the Northern Chinese province of Shandong, who were recruited by the British and French governments to support their fight against the Germans during WWI. These workers later were also “imported” to the US and Canada as those countries joined the war and felt the need for additional labor. The work is based on a decade of archival research in China, Taiwan, France, Germany, the US, Canada, and Britain. It sheds light on these long-forgotten workers, who were instrumental in the Allied efforts that resulted in a defeat of Germany. Yet the persistent racism they encountered in the West, and ultimately the erasure of their contribution both by the countries they served and the Chinese elites who recruited them for the purpose, raises the question of how power determines who is included and excluded from the historical record.

Contents:

Great War and great crisis : China, Britain, France, and the "laborers as soldiers" strategy

The recruitment and European odyssey of the men for Britain and France

The hidden history of the secret Canadian pathway

Work

Treatment and perceptions

Strangers in a strange world : Chinese lives in Europe

American soldiers and Chinese laborers

The association men and Chinese laborers

The fusion of teaching and learning : students as teachers and vice versa

A fusion of civilizations

Appendix 1: Huimin contract with the French government

Appendix 2: British contract

Selected glossary.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674060555

0674060555

OCLC:

733332523