Recently, Hunan Satellite TV premiered the 40-episode revolutionary historical theme TV series "Hundred Refining into Steel". In the first episode of "Hundred Refining into Steel", Cai Hesen, Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian and other revolutionary volunteers went to France to work and study.
What is work-study?
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, there were generally only two kinds of Chinese students studying in European and American countries, one was public expense, and the other was self-funded. The number of publicly-funded international students is too small, and self-funded international students need a lot of expenses, and ordinary families simply cannot afford it. Work-study is the third way to study abroad. It adopts the method of studying and working at the same time, so that many aspiring young people from poor families have the opportunity to study abroad.
During the Republic of China period, there were many revolutionary volunteers and international students who went to France to work and study. Data show that from 1919 to 1920, about 2,000 people from all over the country went to France to carry out work-study. Their story was later made into a revolutionary historical film, My French Years.
As we all know, since the late Qing Dynasty, many Chinese to study in the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, France and other European and American countries. Why did revolutionaries choose France as a work-study destination during the Republic of China period?
First, let's take a look at the historical context.
The wave of Chinese students coming to France to carry out work-study began in 1919. At the end of 1918, the First World War came to an end.
World War I took place from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918 and lasted more than four years. The belligerents were the Allies and the Allies. The Allies were dominated by Germany and Austria-Hungary, while the Allies were led by Britain and France. It was an unusually tragic world war, with more than 100 million soldiers and civilian casualties on both sides.
In this war, France, as the main battlefield, carried out a general mobilization for war and carried out conscription throughout the country. As young people went to war, France then faced a severe shortage of labor. To solve this problem, France recruited a group of workers from China.
From 1916 to 1918, about 140,000 Chinese workers traveled to France. Some of them were placed in French factories to work on the production of labour; the other was assigned to the front lines, engaged in non-combat work such as digging trenches, loading and unloading ammunition supplies, building railways, roads, bridges, and making guns and ammunition, rescuing the wounded, burying bodies and even clearing mines.
Chinese workers have made great contributions to the Allies, but also paid a heavy price, and thousands of people have sacrificed their precious lives. The French side affirmed and praised this.
Mario Mutte, a French Socialist Activist, said: "The most memorable thing about the First World War was that China actively participated in this war with France with sincere goodwill. The assistance provided by China is invaluable. When the French War Department sent a letter to China, it said: "Chinese workers have given great help to our people." French Marshal Fuxi said that Chinese workers are "first-class workers and material for outstanding soldiers."
From that time on, France realized that Chinese workers could not only help fight the war, but also participate in post-war construction work, but they needed to be educated. Therefore, after the end of the First World War, France took the initiative to provide China with a large number of work-study jobs.
So, what is the situation in China?
After 1919, China entered a period of great social change. New trends of thought on various social system reforms have surged up in China, forming an ideological collision with the younger generation. The younger generation hopes to go abroad and go to Europe and the United States to learn new ideas and new technologies and better build their motherland.
Since France is willing to provide a large number of work-study jobs, and the young generation of China has a strong willingness to go abroad, the two sides hit it off.
In the process of a one-shot agreement between China and France, it is inseparable from a Chinese "matchmaking". His name was Li Shizeng.
Li Shi was a native of Gaoyang, Hebei Province, and was a famous educator during the Republic of China period. As early as 1902, Li Shi came to France with Sun Baoqi, the minister in France, and successively studied at the Montagton Agricultural School, the Pasteur College, the University of Paris and other schools. In 1909, Li Shi founded a tofu company in the western suburbs of Paris and recruited a group of workers from Baoding, Hebei Province. In addition to working, Li Shi also let them receive education. This is the prototype of work-study.
In 1916, Li Shizeng and Cai Yuanpei established the Huafa Education Association, which officially launched the work-study mode. Li Shi has had close ties with French political, cultural and economic circles, and this way of studying abroad has been recognized by the French side. Therefore, after the First World War, there were groups of Chinese students studying in France for work-study.
Of course, because it is a work-study program, the living conditions of Chinese students are relatively poor. On their way to France, they took a dark, humid and stuffy air cargo ship. When they arrived in France, the quality of teaching in the schools they studied was not high, and the factories where they worked were very labor-intensive.
However, the international students who worked and studied in France have gained something by studying and working with tenacious perseverance. Many of them returned to China and became the backbone of the revolutionary movement.