After the Opium War of 1840, China gradually degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and was subjected to countless aggressions and insults. After the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, China became a common commodity dumping ground and colony of Europe, the United States, and Japan. All kinds of concessions are spread throughout China, and foreign soldiers and ships are running rampant and rampage in the land, rivers and seas of China. In this context, China is gradually dividing up the calamity of bean cutting.
However, with the outbreak of World War I, China finally seized a turning point. Ignoring the opposition at home, Duan Qirui decided to join the Allies composed of Britain, France, Russia and other powers to participate in the First World War. Proponents of China's involvement in World War I at the time believed that participating in a war that had nothing to do with China would help abolish the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the great powers in Europe and free China.
Under the strong opposition of Japan, Although China could not directly send troops to participate in World War I in 1915. However, China sent 140,000 Chinese workers to Europe in the form of "workers instead of soldiers", of which Britain recruited 100,000 and France recruited 40,000.
The vast majority of Chinese workers came from Shandong, and they fought with Europeans in the trenches, cleaning up the battlefield, burying corpses, and building trenches.
In Europe, Chinese workers showed their bravery, simplicity, hard work and kindness. They risked their lives carrying unexploded bombs and using their lives to protect their comrades and commanders. At the same time, they often saved food to help local refugees and even German prisoners.
The excellent quality of the Chinese workers has unexpectedly won the favor of the local girls in France, thus contributing to a series of touching transnational marriages.
Studies have shown that Chinese workers are particularly popular among French women. Exactly how many Chinese workers married French women is difficult to figure out. Some people think that this number is probably between ten thousand and twenty thousand.
In the eyes of French women, there are too many good qualities of Chinese men. When they first arrived in France, Chinese workers gave French women an excellent image. With the exception of a few, most Chinese workers pay special attention to their dignity, reputation, and image. Once, a French girl lost her purse, so she suspected that a Chinese worker had stolen it. In order to maintain the dignity of themselves and the country, the Chinese workers voluntarily raised 500 yuan to give to the girl, without thinking too much.
A writer in the Rouen region of France commented sourly on Chinese workers:
"The Chinese workers were so proud that they spoke and behaved like conquerors, or like Parisians coming to the countryside, or even like Westerners in China at that time."
Judging from the composition of the workers who went to Europe, most of them are prime-age men aged 20 to 40, which is the age of flesh and blood and love. In China, men and women are not free to interact during working hours. In France, the situation is very different. They were amazed to find that they could reach French women everywhere — in factories, cafes or villages.
Compared with conservative Chinese women, French women pay great attention to dressing, and their style is also very bold and open. At the time, a newspaper said:
"French women never say their true age, they may be sixty or seventy years old, but they look like they are thirty or forty years old. ..... The clothes were exquisitely dressed, covered with white powder and smeared with rouge all over the lips. They also have a kind of footsteps that women of other countries do not have -- a kind of short, sharp, rhythmic and delicate footwork; these are combined, of course, can not distinguish their age, and everything can arouse people's pleasure and admiration. ”
France is a country of fashion and romance. The fashion and romance of French women attracted many Chinese workers, so the above scene was not seen in conservative Chinese rural society, and after a short period of adaptation, many Chinese workers were "dizzy and unable to be autonomous".
Many Chinese workers and French female workers in the same factory "both sides are curious, and they are always interested, and they have feelings and deepen their emotions, so they marry each time by love." ”
The love of French women for Chinese workers is really moving. The famous historian Jiang Tingdi, who once worked at the Chinese consulate in France, encountered such an incident. At that time, a young French girl stormed into Jiang Tingdian's office and told him that she wanted to marry a Chinese worker surnamed Yang.
Jiang Tingdi said that he did not know this person. At the same time, Jiang Tingdi said bitterly: "Girl, you must think well, many chinese habits are different from France." If you marry Chinese, you will encounter challenges from culture and all aspects. ”
But the girl said firmly:
"If I stayed in France, I might never get married, and even if I was lucky enough to marry someone, the other person might be an inexplicable guy who drank all the money he earned and got drunk and threw a tantrum at me." I have known Yang for a year. He never drank alcohol and I don't think he would ever hit me. I think it must be nice to marry him. ”
We don't know if the French girl later married this Worker surnamed Yang as she wished, but we do know that some Chinese workers did eventually become lovers.
According to records, in a labor camp, at least three Chinese workers married French women, namely Lü Huchen, Shi Baozhen and Yang Fushun. Lü Huchen's wife is his colleague who works in the factory, and Shi Baozhen's wife is the owner of a shop near Huagongying. The first two families were relatively well-off, but Yang Fushun did not save any money. His French wife, however, did not mind at all, saying she planned to return to China with Yang.
There was also a Chinese worker named Zhang Changsong, who came to France in 1917 to work in a mine. One day in 1920, the 23-year-old Zhang Changsong had a dispute with the cashier due to a salary settlement error, and he asked the other party to correct the error immediately. But because his French was not easy to speak, he did not speak clearly for half a day. So he dragged the cashier to his superior's office and asked the leader to give him an explanation.
Zhang Changsong's behavior left a deep impression on a 16-year-old French girl who was present at the time. She was cleaning her office and fell in love with Zhang Changsong because of it. In the end, the French girl chased Zhang Changsong backwards, and the two entered the palace of marriage and had a total of 13 children. Married for more than 60 years, still living a happy married life.
Judging from the above examples, the meek, lively and helpful qualities of Chinese workers have infected the French people, making many French women willing to "marry" poor Chinese workers.
A Chinese worker who returned to China recalled that an old lady who had taught herself French insisted on marrying her daughter to him. however
And this group of French girls' "backward pursuit" behavior of Chinese workers has angered many French men.
In the First World War, France suffered heavy casualties, with some 1,385,000 killed and some 4,266,000 wounded. For this world war, France lost a whole generation of young adults, and the streets are full of young men with missing arms and legs.
Marshal Foch of France once commented on the First World War: "This is not a peace, but a twenty-year truce. Marshal Foch was soberly aware that France and Germany would have a future war. Compared to Germany, which has a population of 60 million, France has only 40 million people. If the population is not multiplied, it will be impossible to resist Germany's future revenge offensive.
By this time, Germany was already embarking on a policy of population recovery. At that time, Germany encouraged early marriage and set up a marriage bureau to require young men and women to marry and have children as soon as possible. There are even some members of the community who claim that the previous polygamy policy should be restored.
The French government has also introduced a number of marriage and childbearing policies in view of this situation. The famous French Marshal Xiafei vigorously advocated "war marriage", giving soldiers four days of leave for a certain period of time, allowing them to return home freely, and granting them the right to choose between these four days. The French government is also prepared to tax unmarried and childless persons and to exempt those who are married or have more children.
However, French women yearn for freedom, and the feminist movement is in the ascendant in France. They are very disgusted by "material marriages for the sole purpose of procreation.". In their view, "marrying for the country" instead of "marrying for love" is quite absurd and immoral. Abandoning love and marrying, the children born are bound to be "inferior races" and may further threaten world peace.
Strong twisted melon is not sweet. In the eyes of a French woman, marrying a wounded soldier cannot bring happiness to herself. On the contrary, strong and industrious Chinese men can become their own dependence. In the newspapers of the time, it was written:
"Although Chinese workers have their shortcomings, they are men after all, and in a country that lacks men, it is natural to be rare, at least stronger than wounded soldiers, and more popular than husbands with wives."
French women married a large number of Chinese, which made French men very angry.
To be fair, compared with the British, who regard Chinese workers as an "inferior nation" and often abuse and discriminate against Chinese, the French still treat Chinese workers more kindly. French officials usually have a lot of contacts with Chinese workers, have a relatively harmonious relationship, and even often joke with each other, and there is no serious racial discrimination.
The French were not as strict as the British in their restraints on Chinese workers. Chinese workers were free to associate with French women and marry. In the beginning, the French government, which advocated the freedom of marriage, also resigned itself to it. However, with the end of World War I, the French government began to face up to the problem of "Sino-French marriage".
First of all, in the folk, French men began to protest that French women were chasing Chinese men. A May 1917 police report from the Javier area showed that the local French did not want to see Chinese staying in the area, and even gathered to protest against the Chinese workers, who shouted:
"If you keep fighting, there will be no men in France." The result of this is that Chinese, Arabs, Spaniards will marry our wives and daughters and divide up the great motherland for which we will die sooner or later. ”
This "anti-China" sentiment began to spread throughout France. In this regard, the French government also has to face up to it.
At the same time, wounded soldiers from France also gathered and marched to demand that the government solve their marriage problems for them. For the heroes of these countries, the French government certainly does not dare to slacken off. In their view, healthy and excellent Chinese workers will be the biggest obstacle to the marriage of wounded soldiers. The wounded soldiers could not fight for them.
In response, French Minister of the Interior Baumus has angrily condemned French women married to Chinese:
"Compared to excellent French boys, what is better Chinese?" Why would you rather marry a Chinese worker than a soldier who serves the country? ”
Later, he also said viciously: "Marrying the yellow race coolies is simply a disgrace to the face of a powerful country, and I hope that the French noblewomen will wake up as soon as possible, so as not to cause the "yellow peril" in the future."
Therefore, france's ministry of the interior issued a circular "warning" french women who married abroad: "You will not be happy if you marry Chinese." "The message is very long, in simple terms:
"Chinese workers don't have much savings, and The Chinese and French customs are completely different. Chinese families are unusually authoritarian, and they also have the vice of taking concubines. Chinese got married very early, and the Chinese workers who came to France were already married. If you marry them easily, you will regret it in the future. ”
In this way, the fury of the French men became the biggest obstacle to the marriage between China and France. The great repatriation of Chinese workers also began.
Fueled by the French government, the French media began to smear Chinese workers. It is said that the forest is big, and there are all kinds of birds, among which there are naturally greedy for money, lustful, mercenary, and stealing chickens and dogs. So the French media grabbed the bad behavior of some Chinese workers and raised it to the whole level of Chinese workers. France's Paris Times imposed "ten major crimes" on Chinese workers:
1, do not abide by the time, live casually; 2, rambling; 3, fighting; 4, gathering to worship the alliance; 5, loan sharking; 6, the habit of tobacco and alcohol; 7, gambling; 8, prostitution; 9, theft; 10, rape of women
Under such slander, the French government specially set up prisons for the Chinese, the light offenders squatted in the "black trumpet", the serious sinners squatted in the "water prison", and many criminal Chinese workers fled in order to escape the Arrest of the French Government, becoming "black trumpets, living in hiding in Tibet and going out day and night, and their lives were extremely difficult."
On this basis, the French media also exaggerated and exaggerated the illegal and criminal incidents of Chinese workers, and were full of hatred and racism; they ridiculed all Chinese workers as "robbers," "tramps," and "murderers," and ridiculed them as "wandering Chinese" and "yellow peril." The image of Chinese workers in France in France has gradually degenerated, changing from civilized "big country people" to being synonymous with "black trumpets."
In this way, the image of Chinese in France was completely corrupted.
At the same time, the French government began to recall the Beiyang government and asked them to take measures to curb Sino-French marriage.
The Chinese government is quite ambivalent about the issue of Chinese workers getting married in France. In the eyes of Chinese diplomats, the marriage of Chinese workers to French women is a manifestation of freedom of marriage. According to our Chinese, it is called "it is better to demolish a temple than to destroy a marriage." They are all married, so why beat the Mandarin Duck again?
Li Jun, a Chinese worker stationed in France, pointed out based on modern eugenics:
According to physiologists and linguists, the marriage of the xenomorphs to each other produces better offspring, and the marriage of the Chinese to the French is not harmful. Moreover, such foreign-related marriages can also spread the Customs of Independent Livelihood of Western Individuals to China, thus promoting the civilization of traditional society. ”
Li Shi of the Huafa Education Association believes that "the future of world culture and the progress of mankind have to be mixed with things, so the marriage of Chinese legal persons is the best phenomenon." Therefore, he also practiced it, entrusting people to adopt Mixed Chinese and French children, sending them to school, and found that they did have excellent grades.
But on the other hand, the Beiyang government also believes that Chinese and foreign marriages may face a series of problems. Chinese workers are restricted by contract, and after five years the contract expires, the French government has the right to send them back to China. During this period, it is inevitable that some people will return home for crimes. If so, their French wives will be "abandoned" and will seriously hurt the way of the couple. But if they returned to China with the French, the Chinese workers did not have such economic strength.
On the other hand, many Chinese workers do have wives in China. If they marry in France and never return, the family members at home will have nothing to rely on because of poverty, which will cause more trouble for the government. Soon after, the Shanghai French Concession did indeed have an incident in which the families of Chinese workers besieged the concession bank.
At that time, most Chinese marriages were "the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker", and the husband and wife had no emotional basis, and most of them were not registered with government agencies. In France, they really found "true love". Therefore, many Chinese workers demand that the French side "pay all the wages before they are willing to work." Many French factories had no choice but to meet the requirements of Chinese workers, but this move caused many Chinese workers' families to lose their source of livelihood. Subsequently, a large number of chinese workers' families besieged the concession bank and demanded loans, which brought extremely unfavorable public opinion to the Beiyang government.
Therefore, the Chinese government also believes that it is now necessary to restrict the marriage of Chinese workers in France. Gu Weijun told the French side: "The government of the Republic of China will ensure that the Chinese workers who marry French girls are single. "Before Chinese workers can enter the law, they must provide a single certificate. If a foreign worker wants to marry a French woman, he must have a certificate of no wife from the worker's parents or group leader.
In order to put an end to the problem of bigamy among Chinese in France, the Consulate in Paris also submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to extend this provision to all Chinese in France. This provision, as a "common measure to prevent Chinese people from having bigamy abroad", was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the measure was implemented.
Despite all the measures taken, a series of human tragedies have occurred. Since the end of World War I and the completion of the battlefield clearance work, France has begun to repatriate Chinese workers, and some French factories have refused to continue to work in France for various reasons in order to cooperate with the repatriation operation of the War Department. Many Chinese workers were imprisoned in marseille's Chinese prison, waiting for ships to return home, and forced to separate from their French wives and girlfriends.
Many French girls came to the Paris consulate to petition for permission from their Chinese husbands or fiancés to return to France, demanding intervention from the Chinese government. However, At that time, China was a weak country, which passed France? Some Chinese scholars believe that the French military has overcorrected and sent Chinese workers who have married or engaged French women back to China is simply a "human rights violation."
However, even so, there are still 3,000 Chinese workers who remain in France, and they marry and have children with French women. They spread Chinese culture and had a positive impact on promoting Sino-French exchanges. Due to the political purposes of the French government, many news reports mentioning Sino-French love have been deleted, making the information incomplete. However, we can still conclude that the blood of the Chinese nation is still flowing in the blood of the great nation of France.