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

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910810087903321
• Autore: Xu Guoqi
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0-674-06055-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (367 p.)
• Disciplina: 940.3089/951044
• Soggetti: World War, 1914-1918 - Conscript labor - Europe; World War, 1914-1918 - Participation, Chinese; World War, 1914-1918 - Great Britain; World War, 1914-1918 - France; Foreign workers, Chinese - Europe - History - 20th century; Working class - China - History - 20th century; China Relations Great Britain; China Relations France; Great Britain Relations China; France Relations China
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 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.
• Sommario/riassunto: 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.