This article is written by Li Yudong
Author: Li Yudong, researcher of Chahar Society, famous writer. He graduated in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Glasgow in June 2010. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, the Chinese Essayists Association, and the Shanxi Writers Association. His works include the essay collection "Crazy As a Virgin", "Thorny Shakespeare's Dream", the novels "Night Case", "Miao", "The Barking of Dogs on Earth", and "Out of Focus". In recent years, he has begun to study the fields of politics and international relations, in which the communication between Chinese and Western cultures is the most concerned issue for Li Yudong, a young returnee writer. He joined the Chahar Institute research team in 2016.
"Dancers on the Corpses - 100 Years of Chinese Workers in World War I" is a long article written by Li Yudong to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I and the Chinese laborers who paid blood and sweat in World War I, with a total of more than 45,000 words, which will be serialized on the platforms of the "Chahar Society".
Please scroll down to read Excerpt 5: Journey through The Rough Seas (I).
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If you want to delve into the situation of Chinese workers in World War I, you have to mention such a past:
Since Columbus discovered the New World in the 15th century, the history of the slave trade among Westerners has also begun. The early European powers—Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands—either trafficked the Indians of the American continent to their homeland, or enslaved them on the spot, oppressing them, squeezing them, and coercing them to serve their own profits, but they could not enjoy the fruits of their labor. In the eyes of the colonists, they were complete slaves, and because their skin was reddish-brown, they were insulted to be called "red slaves".
But soon, under the killing and torture of the colonists, the "red slaves" were about to become extinct. By the 17th century, Europeans, who had gained a foothold on the American continent, tried their best to bring a group of poor people and criminals from Europe to the American colonies to serve as labor. This action continued until the 18th century, and these immigrants from Europe were called "white slaves".
From "red slaves" to "white slaves", with the increasing prosperity of the plantation economy on the American continent, the few Indians left in the colonies, and the fallen Europeans who were trafficked to the colonies at high costs, were obviously unable to meet the needs of their productivity.
So the situation prompted the greedy colonists to move their minds elsewhere.
And so, an even more brutal era has arrived.
Since then, the colonists have set their sights on Africa.
In order to obtain cheap labor, the colonists hollowed out their minds. Some so-called "slave traders" either directly carried out "slave hunting" operations on the African continent, or indirectly exchanged inferior goods produced in Europe for population from various tribes – which directly led to infighting and conquest between their tribes.
Africans who were snatched up and used as labor for the colonizers were also called "black slaves".
The Slave Trade, Auguste Francis Biar, 1840 Image credit: Wiki
Trafficking in "black slaves" has been going on for hundreds of years, and for so-called "traders," it was a lucrative business. It is reported that the "traders" of the 18th century, for every "black slave" trafficked, could earn more than 40 pounds of profits, which has to be said to be particularly tempting in terms of the level of consumption in that era.
However, this cruel pursuit of profits has caused the African continent to lose at least 100 million people in the long "black slave business", and the "black slaves" transported from Africa to the Americas alone have reached a staggering 15 million - 20 million or so, and what is even more cruel is that in this process, for every successful transport of 1 person, there will be several people who will die in the middle of the way. But in the eyes of the capitalists, all this is nothing more than normal attrition in the business field.
In their opinion, this is no big deal.
Until the 19th century, as European imperialism appeared more and more frequently in Africa, the competition between the great powers for colonies became increasingly fierce, coupled with a large number of trafficking and trade, which in itself caused a sharp decline in the number of "black slaves" in Africa, and the angry resistance of the oppressed - the cost of selling "black slaves" also rose.
Even so, the British Empire, the world's number one power, abolished slavery in 1807, before the Western powers.
On the surface, they seem to have learned to be merciful.
But the deep-seated reasons behind this "benevolence" also emit a strong smell of capitalist copper.
Its core is only because the use value of the "black slave" is indeed much worse than before.
When it is profitable, it will squeeze you, and when it is powerless, it will pretend to be benevolent. This is the mentality of imperialism – this is also the situation of the colonized.
Why mention such a past?
For it is enough to prove that certain ugliness is by no means an isolated case of a certain era—in the logic of the arrogance of the aggressor, it is in the same vein as the past.
Although African slaves have lost their value of exploitation, and although the British have taken the lead in abolishing slavery, all these superficial articles cannot change the greed of capitalists for profit. From the red slaves, to the white slaves, to the black slaves, when their labor force was once again depleted, with the clarion call of the "Industrial Revolution", they were finally convinced that they had the strength to conquer all powerful enemies.
Then, in 1840, the British launched the Opium War. With the defeat of the war, China was forced to open its doors, and it was forced to deal with more and more foreigners without equality.
And with the intensification of plunder, with the arrival of the great powers, and with the mysterious China, it was finally fully presented to them - the arbitrary invaders had a completely new idea of how to introduce cheap labor.
In the british and American investigation reports, the meekness, obedience, and hard-working of the Chinese have been deliberately repeatedly mentioned.
"Chinese strong physique, enough to cope with ordinary field work, although the speed of work is slow, but diligent, endurance." - This is the description of the British.
"If he (Chinese) were to occupy a piece of leased land, he would devote all his energy and skill to his best to make it the most rewarding, and under any conditions he would create a competitive force that would be difficult to compete with." This is the Description of the Americans.
In the face of diligent Chinese, they have a clever move.
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It must be pointed out that the history of Westerners hiring Chinese workers did not begin with the "First World War". As early as the 1840s and 1850s, which were even more distant than this, with the invasion of great powers, a strange place appeared in Xiamen, In Macao, in Hong Kong, in Guangzhou, as well as in Shantou, Ningbo, Fuzhou and other places. In some places it resembles a low barn—surrounded by a fence and covered with straw mats, and divided into small rooms inside; in other places, it is a small one
Temporary rented houses or old temples that have long been dilapidated, in addition to various and varied other images... ... they have a common name, called "Pig Boy House".
And they are the places used by the Western powers to plunder Chinese workers.
At that time, European and American businessmen would usually hire some local rogues and order them to bribe a group of kidnappers as agents to engage in human trafficking activities. Kidnappers often show the poor people who have no way to make a living, deliberately exaggerate how rich and progressive they are abroad, and if they go abroad, how they will live a moist life, etc., to deceive the trust of the other party, and then lure them into the tiger's mouth.
Then they were put in the "Pig House".
The door of the "Pig Boy Pavilion" is narrow, and outside the door are heavily armed guards, and inside the museum is inhuman abuse. The people who are imprisoned will henceforth be regarded as coolies, and they will be forced to remember questions such as: When asked why they went abroad to work as coolies, they had to answer, because they were poor, they could not make a living, and they were willing to sell themselves. If you answer truthfully with the words "plundered by others", you will be severely beaten and tortured in the museum. In some places, in order to prevent coolies from escaping, they are often stripped naked and even shackled, and their hair is often tied together without dignity.
Many were humiliated and chose to commit suicide, but many more were captured by guards when they chose to try to escape and beaten to death in public. Dead bodies were thrown into the desert. Others, who were dying after being tortured, were thrown away along with dead bodies because they could not regain their ability to work in a short period of time.
The putrid smell filled not only the air, but also the hearts of the colonists.
Slave trading ships gathered in Xiamen Image source: Sohu
Even when it was time to be transported abroad, the torment of the coolies on the ship continued.
In 1857, a coolie boat, just to save fresh water resources, banned coolies from drinking water, which eventually led to the tragedy of more than 50 people dying of thirst on the way. In 1885, on the American "Waverley", due to a dispute with Chinese coolies, the acting captain Frankie ordered the cabin to be sealed, and 300 coolies were suffocated alive. Incidents such as these are not uncommon on Western ships to and from China.
Between 1847 and 1873, the average annual sea mortality rate when carrying coolies was as high as 32.51%, and even a staggering 57.28% at its highest.
In the face of such shocking figures, the colonists actually gave such an absurd and cold reply:
"It's not anyone's fault, it's God's will."
The ship starts and the ship sets sail. In 1917, in order to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of the French "Arthur" cruise ship, the British cruise ship full of Chinese workers sailed more on a route through Japan, Canada, and the British mainland, and then arrived in France.
At this moment, in the land of the Chinese nation, the last feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, has been overthrown, and the overall situation of the world is changing- and nearly half a century has passed since the painful history that belonged to the "Pig Boy Pavilion". Under the influence of the First World War, when the great powers faced heavy losses and begged China for help, in essence, the role played by Chinese at this time was no longer what it was in the Qing Dynasty.
In the contract reached with the Chinese side, the British side also clearly stated that they would treat the accompanying Chinese interpreters with the same treatment as British lieutenant officers. It will also treat those Chinese laborers who have crossed the ocean and suffered hardships with relatively equal treatment.
But the ship moved, and the ship set sail.
As the cruise ship slowly turned into a point of light and slowly disappeared into the sky, all those promises, all those "spirit of contract" that Westerners were proud of, were all reduced to a worthless empty paper.
From the moment they stepped on the ship, they were enclosed in a narrow cabin by the British leader with the high nose and blue eyes, and they were huddled together without the slightest room for movement. Face to face, breath to breath, they endured the rolling of the waves and the bumps of the hull together. Due to the serious lack of ventilation conditions, coupled with the Chinese workers' own inadaptability to foreign food, stomach diseases and intestinal diseases soon spread in the cabin.
In the midst of this tragic situation, in September of that year, a British Swire company ship slowly docked in Osaka, Japan.
Chinese workers on slave ships Image source: Sohu
The ship will spend the next 6 days in Osaka and Yokohama to replenish the coal and fresh water needed for the voyage.
The officers in charge and officers on the ship will seize the time of these 6 days, take a vacation, relax, and prepare physically and mentally for the next voyage.
However, fearing flight or leaking secrets, 2,000 Chinese workers in the closed cabin were asked to be banned from disembarkation.
Six days later, when the ship restarted, many people in the cabin had died.
On the vast sea surface - ahead is a never-ending long road, behind which is the motherland that is gradually moving away.
The door of the cabin opened and the door of the cabin closed. The British came, the British left—they carried the bodies. Their handling of the bodies was unusually simple and straightforward.
There are no ceremonies, no funerals.
After a password, they threw the dead man into the sea, and in the rough waves, they carved out a few faint waves...
Only in the narrow cabin, there was a cry - it was like the desperate wailing of the "Pig Boy Pavilion" in the past.
To be continued...
This article is published with the permission of the author and may not be reproduced without permission.
Responsible Editor/Liang Chenglu Gu Xinyang
Photo editor/Long Yanyu