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

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Xu, Guoqi,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2011]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (366 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Note on Romanization -- Introduction -- 1. Great War and Great Crisis: China, Britain, France, and the “Laborers as Soldiers” Strategy -- 2. The Recruitment and European Odyssey of the Men for Britain and France -- 3. The Hidden History of the Secret Canadian Pathway -- 4. Work -- 5. Treatment and Perceptions -- 6. Strangers in a Strange World: Chinese Lives in Eu rope -- 7. American Soldiers and Chinese Laborers -- 8. The Association Men and Chinese Laborers -- 9. The Fusion of Teaching and Learning: Students as Teachers and Vice Versa -- 10. A Fusion of Civilizations -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1: Huimin Contract with the French Government -- Appendix 2: British Contract -- Notes -- Selected Glossary -- Selected Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index