Chinese Labor Corps on the Western Front and Its Significance to China

一战西线战场的华工及其对中国的意义

根据北洋政府和英法等协约国签订的“以工代兵”计划，中国政府先后共派遣 14 万华工奔赴一战西线战场，这些华工对战争的贡献曾长时间被忽视。近年来，在他们曾服务的国家，华工的贡献逐渐得到认可，然而这些华工对中国的贡献依然少有研究。本文从两个方面探讨这一议题：一是派遣华工到海外促进了中国的民族身份认同与国际化进程，二是对华工的教育成为后来席卷中国的平民教育运动的试点项目。

China sent 140,000 laborers to the Western Front during the First World War under the “laborers as soldiers” project proposed by the Peking Government. The laborers’ contribution to the war effort has long been ignored, yet is gradually receiving a much wider recognition by the countries they served. However, the men’s contribution to China has been an understudied issue. The paper will illustrate the significance of the project to China from two aspects: as a boost to China’s national identity and China’s internationalization effort, and as a piloting experiment of mass education that would later be conducted across China.