World War IChinese

Labourers

World War I drew in people from around the world, the little known story of the 320,000 Chinese labourers who served with the Allied Forces on the Western Front during WW I has drawn new interest in recent years. Many of the Chinese labourers were recruited from the British and French concession ports in Shandong Province, China, and from Hong Kong, despite the fact that China was engrossed in her own domestic turmoil. The Chinese labourers buried the dead, dug trenches, worked in munitions factories and cleaned up the shells, grenades and bullets after the November 11, 1918 armistice. Hundreds of Chinese students served as translators. For the labourers, the war was a way to make far more money than they could at home. But their sacrifice became a pivotal point in Chinese history. After the armistice, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles saw Germany's concession ports in China handed to Japan, despite China's objections. Unhappiness over the treaty led to the May 4 protest movement, which is seen as contributing to the eventual rise of the Communist Party, which has ruled China since 1949. Years of internal bloodshed, invasion, civil war and revolution all have close links to WW I and the resulting peace treaties. Sending as Chinese labourers to the front was a brilliant strategy to link China with the West, the link between the war and the founding of China's Communist Party. During the war, the young interpreters drew up education plans in spare moments away from the dangerous toil on the battlefields. As a result nearly two-thirds of the labourers returned home able to read. That effort inspired the men who went on to lead the Communist Party.

Chinese labourer battalions ready for embarkation to France. 175,000 Chinese have been sent to France for work behind the lines.

This detachment started from Tsingtao, formerly a German stronghold in China.

Nine members of the Chinese Labour Corps in a ruined house. Among them two gangers and an interpreter.

(In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres)

Capt. Harry Drummond Livingstone, of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, examining would-be recruits in Shandong Province in 1917. Livingstone examined men for diseases that could disqualify them, including tuberculosis, venereal disease and trachoma, a bacterial eye disease that can cause blindness. (Livingstone Family)

Workers washed during recruitment in Weihai, Shandong. (David Livingstone)

Workers washed during recruitment. (David Livingstone)

The British settlement in Weihai during recruitment. (David Livingstone)

Chinese workers on their way to France (Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

British officer inspecting Chinese worker at Erin, France, in February 1918. (Tank Museum)

Chinese labourers at a roll-call in France, during World War I.(National Library of Scotland)

The entrance to the Chinese Labourers’ Camp near the ammunition factory of Vonges, France.

(In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres)

Chinese workers leaving a Christian lecture in a YMCA hut in Northern France. (Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

British Captain Louis Sebert and a Chinese interpreter sharing a meal, 1917. (David Livingstone)

Men of the Chinese Labour Corps load sacks of oats onto a lorry at Boulogne while supervised by a British officer (12 August 1917)

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps carry out riveting work at the Central Workshops of the Tank Corps, British Forces.

Chinese Labour Corps workers at the Tank Corps Central Workshops, Erin, France, 1918. (Tank Museum)

Chinese Labour Corps workers washing a Mark V tank at the Tank Corps Central Workshops,

Erin, France, February 1918. (Tank Museum)

Members of the Chinese Labour Corp load ammunition shells onto a train. (Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

Men of the Chinese Labour Corps unloading trench duckboards from an incoming supply train

(Australian War Memorial Collection)

Chinese labourers move munitions in France (Imperial War Museum)

Chinese at work cutting barbed wire(Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

Chinese labourers construct light railway leading to the front. To release more soldiers to fight, armies relied on paid labourers behind the lines.

(George Metcalf Archival Collection)

Chinese Labour Corps personnel unload duckboards from mainline railway cars.The photo caption notes that the Labour Corps was not used in the 'danger areas'.

Kitchen staff and staff of a Chinese hospital (Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

Chinese workers entertain British troops in France (National Library of Scotland)

Chinese workers entertain British troops in France (National Library of Scotland)

Chinese performers entertain Labour Corps members and British troops at an open-air theatre at Étaples (June 1918).

The two audiences appear to be segregated by a small wire fence.

Taken on a Chinese Festival day, the 15th of the 8th moon, year unknown. (Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota)

Chinese labourers leave the ruined village of Vlamertinghe on their way to work.(Copyright In Flanders Fields Museum. Available as CC BY-NC-SA)

Two members of a Chinese Labour Corps carrying their equipment during the British retirement in France, 24 March 1918.

(Australian War Memorial Collection)

Chinese labourers posing with battlefield tourists in 1919(Copyright In Flanders Fields Museum. Available as CC BY-NC-SA)

The cap badge of the Chinese Labour Corps (Copyright In Flanders Fields Museum. Available as CC BY-NC-SA)

The entrance to the Chinese cemetery of the British Army at Noyelles-sur-Mer, Northern France

Tombs at the Nolette Chinese Cemetery, the burial place of some 850 Chinese workers who died during World War I, in Noyelles-sur-Mer, northern France

St Etienne Cemetery in France -- Memorial Inscription in Chinese, French and English:TO THE MEMORY OF THE CHINESE LABOURERS

Who died on service in France during the Great War and are buried here in this cemetery.This monument was erected by their comrades. December 1919.

Once Upon A Time In The West

大提琴演奏 馬友友Cello : Yo-Yo Ma

編曲 埃尼奥 . 莫利康奈Music : Ennio Morricone

謝 謝 瀏 覽 Thank you for watching

Edition 2014-07-28 by Herbert K. Lau

100th Year of World War I