From 1917 to 1920 more than 140,000 Chinese labourers were sent to the Western front. They were mainly deployed for construction and demolition work, road construction, digging trenches and clearing battlefields, work on the railways, loading and unloading of ships and trains. Despite the apparently ephemeral nature of this work , it was vital for the allied war effort. Moreover, the political stakes were high: by sending labourers to the Western front the new Chinese Republic aimed to obtain a seat at the post-war peace conference. Yet, the Chinese Labour Corps left a lasting but contested legacy that has not been fully acknowledged to this very day.
Dominiek Dendooven (In Flanders Fields Museum/University of Antwerp - Department of History)
Venue: Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, Darwin College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, England, CT2 7NY
In Flanders Fields Museum, Gateways to the First World War and the University of Kent organize a series of eight seminars, accessible to all. Full details of all the seminars can be found here.
