China and The First World War
I wrote a while back about China's involvement in World War I and got a response from one reader that he was utterly surprised that 140,000 Chinese went to Europe to fight with the Allied powers. (They fought as laborers building trenches and such). His comment made me think, "did China really send so many people or did I just find a bad source of information?" Well, the numbers are right. This week's addition of The Economist discusses China's involvement in WWI and how no one really knew. They sent so many people, did some of the dirty jobs, and in return they had part of their territory transferred from the losing power, Germany, to their more dominant neighbor, Japan. Lu Xun wrote his stories during this time in China and if his stories come across as a bit pessimistic then understand the times he was living in. He wanted to see a stronger China, but after WWI China seemed quite enfeebled. To read the article, visit this link. The Economist keeps their articles up for non-subscribers for about three weeks so read it while you can. China and The First World War (The Economist)