RAS LECTURE
Tuesday 2nd June, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
1oz3, Australian Lifestyle, No. 1 Yueyang Road (function room)
(Opposite Pushkin Monument at the junction of Fenyang, Yueyang, Dongping & Taojiang Roads)
Paul J. Bailey
Globalisation, Labour and Cultural Interaction: Chinese Contract Workers in WW1 France
One of the least-known episodes of World War One was the use of Chinese contract workers (most of whom came from the northern province of Shandong) by the British and French governments for a variety of war-related work in transportation and construction, munitions production, and machine-repair and maintenance. This talk will place the episode (focusing in particular on the French recruitment) in the larger contexts of the history of Chinese labour overseas that began with the illegal ‘coolie’ trade of the 19th century on the one hand, and Sino-French cultural relations and mutual perceptions in the early 20th century on the other. The talk will also briefly explore the experience of the Chinese workers themselves while in France—noting, for example, how an embryonic national consciousness developed amongst them that transcended more local and regional loyalties--and will conclude with the long-term significance of the episode, especially in relation to Maoist China’s political use of Chinese labour overseas in its relations with Africa in the 1960s.
Paul J. Bailey is Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Edinburgh. He did his doctorate at the University of British Columbia (Canada), during which time he studied and carried out research at Beijing University (1980-1981). Professor Bailey previously taught at Lingnan College and Middle School (Hong Kong) and the University of Durham (UK).He has published six books on China, and is currently engaged in the writing of two more—one on the Chinese contract workers in World War One France, entitled The Sino-French Connection, and the other a study of gender and sociocultural change in modern China, entitled Women and Gender in Twentieth Century China.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.