In 1917, Bi Zhide, a villager in Niuquan Town, Laiwu, Shandong Province, lined up in a long line to prepare for Europe. At this time, Bi zhide did not know that the wheel of history had swept him into the abyss.
Beechede was one of the 140,000 laborers China sent to Europe to help the Entente during World War I, and this is not the first time China has sent labor to Europe. In fact, as early as 1914, a month after the outbreak of World War I, Liang Shiyi, the prime minister of the Beiyang government, proposed that China should participate in World War I and form an alliance with the Allies.
Why china sent labor to Europe
Due to The weakness of China at that time, Liang Shiyi advocated that China send labor instead of troops, so that it could eventually stand on the world political stage as a victorious country. Since Liang Shiyi was a close associate of Yuan Shikai, many people held a negative evaluation of Liang Shiyi, but from the perspective of the present time, we have to say that Liang Shiyi's judgment of the international political situation at that time was very keen.
Liang Shiyi (center) with diplomats from various countries
Of course, Liang Shiyi's abacus was seen through by the British. After learning of the beiyang government's entry into the war, Zhu Erdian, the British minister in China at the time, wrote back to Britain: "In my opinion, the new generation of Chinese politicians is committed to China's equal status and has a certain say after the war, and if this goal cannot be guaranteed, they will not agree to their compatriots rushing to the European battlefield." ”
The British refused very crisply, after all, the cake of victory was limited, and the more one person divided up, the less the benefit. When the war entered 1916, the situation changed and the British had to compromise. In February 1916, the Battle of Verdun broke out. The most brutal battle in human history, with more than a million casualties, was known as the "Verdun Meat Grinder". Although the Allies eventually won the battle, due to the huge loss of numbers, Britain and France also thought of China, the world's most populous country. Who would have thought that China, as a populous country, would become a major political advantage at this time.
"Worker ants" are general Chinese laborers
In 1916, a company called "Huimin" began recruiting Chinese workers in Tianjin. According to the recollections of returned workers, job advertisements at the time read, "Go to France with a contract of at least 5 years!" Your annual income will reach 2,000 francs, and when you come back you will be a Monopoly! "Driven by money, the Chinese workers who signed up were crowded.
How much money is there? At that time, the price offered by France was 5 francs per person per day for Chinese workers, and at that time, 1 silver yuan was exchanged for 5 francs, and a Chinese worker was 30 silver yuan a month, and the family members of Chinese workers in China could also receive a subsidy of 10 silver yuan per month. The maximum monthly wage of Chinese laborers is only four or five silver yuan, so it seems that the conditions offered by the French are indeed generous.
Temporary camp for Chinese laborers in Weihai Harbor
Of the 140,000 Chinese laborers who went to Europe, in addition to being distributed to Britain and France, another 10,000 were loaned to the American Expeditionary Force in Europe. In the eyes of Europeans, Chinese laborers are discriminated against and can only be regarded as a group of toiling workers.
First, Chinese workers are paid less. Although the price given by Huimin Company is far higher than the wages of Chinese local workers, in fact, the wages of Chinese workers are 2 francs in addition to food and accommodation, 25 yuan for installation, 25 shengding for medical insurance, and finally only 2.5 francs are left, and the daily wages of French soldiers in the same period are 10 francs, which is 4 times the wages of Chinese laborers.
Second, although nominally a laborer, the work done is no more dangerous than that of a soldier. According to the original agreement of the contract, Chinese labor did not need to go to the battlefield, but after arriving in Europe, it was not the case, and the British directly put Chinese laborers on the front line, in addition to digging trenches, building fortifications and other labor, as well as very dangerous work such as mine removal. Chinese laborers once worked in trenches 50 meters from German machine guns, so that when the German army broke through the defense line, the Chinese laborers could only use shovels and hoes to fight the heavily armed German troops.
Chinese laborers cleaned tanks in the British Tank Corps
However, for hard-working Chinese workers, what is intolerable is always unequal wages and dangerous working conditions, but a trampling on dignity. Chinese laborers have never had the right to enter cafes and bars, and have even been banned from using British toilets. There is a sentence in the language manual that the British communicate with Chinese workers: the toilets used by Europeans are Chinese not allowed to be used.
The Chinese laborers under the british administration were no different from the management of concentration camps, and demanded uniform uniforms and no civilian clothing. Unable to bear such humiliation, a laborer dug a pit in his barracks and buried himself, and the bones were found years after the war ended.
Compared with the British, the French did not treat Chinese laborers so harshly, and Chinese laborers could not only wear ordinary people's clothes, but also go out of the camp to carry out various activities in their leisure time. Nevertheless, Europeans have always viewed Chinese labor with an absolute sense of superiority.
Even in the face of discrimination, Chinese workers are optimistic
Under the barbaric management of the Europeans, Chinese workers often organized collective strikes to claim their legitimate rights and interests. After the end of World War I, because the contract period of the Chinese workers was not completed, the French mobilized the Chinese workers from all over the country to the north of France for post-war reconstruction. In this process, the treatment of Chinese workers is getting worse and worse, wage arrears, lack of clothing and food, and simply cannot meet the most basic needs for survival, and the unbearable Chinese workers are forced to carry out strikes and riots.
The scope and extent of the strike reached unprecedented heights, and at the height of the conflict, French officials continued to accuse Chinese workers of theft, robbery and misuse of weapons, and the French media joined the ranks of critics of Chinese workers, often using "murderers", "shameless" and "insidious" to describe Chinese laborers. The French media even called the Chinese workers' strike movement the "Yellow Peril".
However, the title of "worker ant", in addition to the inhuman discrimination of Chinese laborers in Britain and France, it also has the recognition of the hard work of Chinese laborers, Chinese the industriousness and pragmatism in their bones, which has left a deep impression on Europeans and has been recognized by the international community. Compared with other workers in French factories, Chinese workers went later and did the lowest jobs. But soon, the hard-working spirit and intelligent understanding of Chinese laborers prompted them to become the first-class workers of the time, not only with higher work efficiency, but also proficient in the manipulation process of various machines.
Chinese laborers who master the mechanical technology of repairing tanks
For a time, French ports, railway stations, factories and other places can see Chinese laborers skillfully manipulating machines. The British Army's 1918 report mentioned that Chinese workers were among the best foreign workers, and that most of them were skilled or quickly mastered their job skills, and they had been working efficiently on railways, factories, and workshops. Foch, commander-in-chief of the French army, once wrote to the French prime minister: "Chinese workers are very good laborers, they can become the best soldiers, and they can still maintain a good posture and unflinching under the crazy bombardment of artillery shells." ”
Europeans did not give Chinese workers a reward that was proportional to their efforts, and even if the Chinese workers were good enough, they were always "worker ants" in their eyes. This industrious spirit cannot withstand the political game after all.
Overseas Chinese workers will eventually be recognized
In the face of the Europeans' disdain, the Chinese workers did not swallow their anger. Overseas Chinese workers know that their face of such rude treatment stems from the weakness of the Beiyang government, and having a strong country as the support of overseas Chinese has become the expectation of every Chinese worker, which has deeply stimulated the strong sense of self-esteem and national consciousness of Chinese workers.
Driven by self-esteem and national consciousness, Chinese workers organized individual training associations. Members of the Individual Training Association and local Chinese students help each other, encourage Chinese workers to develop healthy living habits, refuse gambling, fighting, and drug use; in their spare time, Chinese workers will organize singing and dancing together, and invite local residents to participate together.
Dunkirk, the amphitheater of the Chinese Labor Barracks
For a time, Chinese laborers who went overseas deeply immersed traditional Chinese culture into the lives of French residents. Since most of the Chinese laborers were peasants, after going to France to see modern civilization, they spontaneously and patiently asked Chinese students and French people for advice, and their spiritual outlook also changed. It is said that a French writer was amazed when he saw the Chinese workers in Rouen, believing that the local Chinese workers behaved like Parisians; when a British officer insulted the Chinese workers, the Chinese workers bravely ironed: when Chinese had become gentlemen, the British were still barbarians.
The bravery and simplicity of the Chinese workers finally impressed the local residents. According to statistics, after the end of the war, about 3,000 Chinese workers married French women and eventually stayed in France. And this process is very difficult, the French Minister of Internal Affairs Baumus once issued a notice in the media: Why don't we French women marry the Triumphant Returning French soldiers, but marry the yellow-skinned coolies? In the face of such resistance, Gu Weijun, the first diplomat of the Republic of China, issued a statement: The Chinese government can pay relevant responsibilities. Zhang Changsong, a Chinese worker in Jiangsu Province, and his French wife, Louis, eventually completed the marriage registration procedures at the Chinese Embassy in France.
Zhang Changsong and his French wife Louis
By 1921, about 110,000 Chinese workers had returned to China, and in addition to the more than 3,000 people who remained in Europe, about 20,000 Chinese workers were eventually not heard from, they may have died in foreign battlefields, or they may have been treated inhumane and their whereabouts are unknown, and only 1874 people have their names. Chinese laborers contributed to the victory of the Allies in the European battlefield, as Gu Weijun said in the movie "My 1919": "The number of laborers sent by China to Europe reached 140,000, they were all over the battlefield, and they were bleeding and dying like all the victorious soldiers." ”
During the Paris Peace Conference, the day before the Beiyang government ordered the diplomatic corps to sign the Treaty of Versailles, Chinese laborers and students in Paris held a large-scale parade. Bi Zhide, a Chinese worker from Shandong, sent a pistol to Lu Zhengxiang, head of the Chinese diplomatic delegation, and the letter also wrote: If you sign the japanese demand, you must use this gun to cut yourself, otherwise my generation will be killed. "Compared with people at home, overseas Chinese workers can better appreciate the international status of Chinese at that time; compared with the Beiyang government, overseas Chinese workers continue to fight in their own way." It was this struggle that eventually won the recognition of Chinese workers by Europeans.
On the afternoon of November 2, 1998, in the Parc des d'Ordie in Paris's Chinatown, the French government erected a monument to Chinese laborers who died in World War I. The inscription on the monument is carved in French and Chinese: in honor of the Chinese laborers and fighters who died for France in World War I.
According to incomplete statistics, there are 1791 tombs in 56 cemeteries in France to bury Chinese workers, including Shandong Chinese workers.