US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
    China / Cover Story

    Working across the divide

    (China Daily) Updated: 2014-07-17 07:11

    Life of Chinese workers

    Working across the divide
    Wang Jinyong, a Chinese laborer.[Photo provided to China Daily] 

    The Chinese workers were seen by many scholars as passive victims. They dug trenches, buried the dead, worked in munitions factories and cleaned up the shells, grenades and cartridges after the Nov 11, 1918 armistice.

    They were treated badly by the French and British. They were segregated in camps under armed guards, and punishments inflicted on them included beatings, prison sentences for strikers and fines for insubordination.

    One source showing this mistreatment is a diary kept by Father John Van Welleghen, a Belgian parish priest in Flanders. His diary entries showed the sympathetic attitude of the local people toward victims of the British army's harsh methods.

    He wrote: "I passed by the camp and saw three of them tied with arms outstretched on the wire of the perimeter fence. One of them also had his legs tied. It can't have been pleasant in this wintery weather. Today it has been freezing hard."

    O'Neill said he believes one reason the Chinese were mistreated is because the British and French armies suffered enormous casualties during the war and their spirits were low.

    "They just wanted to get the war finished. They were not in the mood to welcome or understand new people," O'Neill said.

    The second reason for the mistreatment was because they were under the colonial mindset that white people were the superior race, he said. "That is not correct, but it was the common attitude at the time," O'Neill said.

    The British and French also did not understand the Chinese as they had no prior knowledge of these workers' culture and country. They believed that treating them strictly would make them easier to control, O'Neill said.

    Like Van Welleghen, O'Neill's grandfather Frederick O'Neill came in contact with the Chinese workers in his role as a minister of the church. He spent two years in France serving the Chinese Labour Corps and wrote a diary about his experiences.

    Frederick O'Neill lived among the Chinese workers, providing them with spiritual support. He would help them write letters to send to their relatives in China, and help them organize recreational activities like sports events and singing and dance performances, to help the workers take their minds off the war.

    Working across the divide
    A Chinese laborer amid the destroyed graves in the churchyard of the village of Dikkebus near Ypres of Belgium.  [Photo provided to China Daily]

    Highlights
    Hot Topics
    ...
    玖玖资源站无码专区| 久久精品中文字幕一区| 在线欧美天码中文字幕| 中文资源在线官网| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区夜夜嗨 | 亚洲国产精品无码久久青草| 色婷婷综合久久久久中文字幕 | 精品久久久久久久久中文字幕| 亚洲精品无码专区在线在线播放 | 中文字幕专区高清在线观看| 亚洲AV无码久久精品狠狠爱浪潮| 亚洲av中文无码乱人伦在线咪咕| 无码日韩人妻精品久久蜜桃| 7777久久亚洲中文字幕| 亚洲精品一级无码鲁丝片| 92午夜少妇极品福利无码电影| 中文精品久久久久人妻| 亚洲欧美综合在线中文| 亚洲äv永久无码精品天堂久久 | 国99精品无码一区二区三区| 亚洲AV无码一区二区三区在线观看| 国产日韩AV免费无码一区二区| 亚洲国产精品无码中文字 | 中文字幕av无码专区第一页| 中文字幕在线观看亚洲日韩| 亚洲欧美日韩中文字幕一区二区 | 国产精品亚洲αv天堂无码 | 人妻丰满熟妇AV无码片| 蜜桃臀AV高潮无码| 无码毛片AAA在线| 日本无码WWW在线视频观看| 中文字幕一区二区免费| 久久久噜噜噜久久中文字幕色伊伊 | 最近新中文字幕大全高清| 中文人妻av高清一区二区| 亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码APP| 国产精品无码专区| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区久久久| 日韩精品一区二区三区中文字幕| 日本精品久久久久中文字幕8| 亚洲av无码天堂一区二区三区|