After the First World War, some Chinese laborers were repatriated, why did some French women petition not to let them go? Chinese laborers crossed the ocean and came to the land of France in order to make a living, who would have thought that they would become husbands once they went. Such a transnational marriage is really remarkable. On the French side, however, the people are also complicated. On the one hand, the young and beautiful French girls are free to love and pursue Chinese workers, and on the other hand, the disabled veterans feel a great threat, and the country has a headache for this. For a while, the situation changed, love and hatred were entangled, and Chinese workers became the focus of contradictions. Are they lucky or unlucky?
At that time, China was in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the organs of power were divided by foreign powers, and the whole country was in a state of collapse. For ordinary people, life is too poor. Many young and middle-aged people in rural areas are forced to make a living, so they have to leave their families and go to other places to work and earn a living.
After the Opium War in 1840, China was forced to open its treaty ports. That is a shame that our country has never had since ancient times, but it has also opened up opportunities for many Chinese to go abroad. After the outbreak of World War I, the European powers were desperately short of manpower, so China sent 140,000 laborers to the European battlefield in the form of "replacing soldiers with workers". Britain recruited 100,000 in one go, and France also recruited 40,000.
Most of these people are from rural Shandong. As soon as they left the country, their lives were turned upside down. On the war-torn battlefields of Europe, these Chinese laborers fought side by side with Europeans, responsible for burying corpses, cleaning up the battlefield, building fortifications and other dangerous heavy work. At that time, they were well-known heroes.
Unexpectedly, while shedding blood and sacrifice, some Chinese workers actually got married. It turned out that their docile, kind, and helpful qualities deeply touched the local French female friends. On the other hand, the Chinese workers with meager incomes and ordinary conditions can attract the hearts of French girls out of simple admiration.
At that time, there were many touching love stories that spread. There was a middle-aged French woman who insisted on marrying her daughter to a Chinese worker. Although the laborer was destitute, she only valued the good nature of the other party. There is also the Chinese worker surnamed Yang, a pretty French girl who confessed to the Chinese embassy staff so firmly, saying that she would marry him for everything.
The conduct of the Chinese workers is undoubtedly the source of the madness of the French girls. Most of them came from poor backgrounds, but they were all well-behaved, hardworking, quiet and humble, and many drunken French men of the time seemed more and more unorganized by comparison. It is no wonder that many local women will "get married" without hesitation. In this way, some lucky people found the love of their lives in the midst of the war.
With the end of the war, the issue of Sino-French marriage soon sparked huge controversies and riots. As if suddenly stabbed into a honeycomb, the French men shouted "The Yellow Peril is coming" in annoyance. They questioned why these outsiders were able to marry French noblewomen.
The other group is the disabled veterans who have died so much for their country, but now they are too old and frail to start a family. In order to take care of their marriages, the government had to put a stop to these cross-border marriages between Chinese and French women.
The situation is in shambles. At that time, the Beiyang government also had a headache about this matter, and was caught off guard by the dilemma. The local newspapers were even more noisy, accusing Chinese workers of "tobacco, alcohol and gambling" and "sexually assaulting women", which was really a wanton slander against the Chinese.
Soon, the Chinese workers were repatriated en masse. At the same time as the Sino-French relations were traumatized, a touching transnational marriage ended hastily. However, it is estimated that 10,000 or 20,000 Chinese workers managed to stay in France and live and work with their wives.
After the end of World War I, Chinese laborers were almost regarded as sinners by the French and had to suffer the fate of mass repatriation. However, even in that turbulent era, it could not prevent the birth of pure love between some Chinese workers and French girls. In contrast, they appear to be more courageous and wise, pursuing their inner desires without being influenced by external subjective consciousness. So love knows no bounds, even under the baptism of the fiery war, it is difficult to hide that tenderness.