A free public talk will be given by Steve Lau, Chair of the Ensuring We Remember Campaign’s Strategic Partnership Board.

To mark the start of the First Word War centenary, the BBC screened a two part series by historian David Olusoga entitield The World’s War – Forgotten Soldiers of Empire. In referring to the Chinese Labour Corps, David Olusoga described them as “The Forgotten of the Forgotten”.  Yet at the time, the Chinese were the largest non-European labour force, playing vital roles in everything from constructing railways to digging trenches, maintaining and repairing tanks to exhuming thousands of battlefield dead for reburial in the newly established Imperial (from 1960, Commonwealth) War Grave cemeteries.

The mammoth logistical undertaking of transporting almost 100,000 men from northern China to the Western Front itself bears witness to the importance the British attached to securing Chinese labour. Yet, just a few years later, Britain had erected over 43,000 memorials to the Great War, and not even one remembered these men.

In this informative talk, Steve Lau gives a nuanced exploration of the social, political and historical factors that tipped China’s contribution from diplomatic triumph to national tragedy – and why it matters.

Lancaster City Museum,
Market Square , Lancaster , Lancashire, LA1 1HT

Sunday 22nd February 2015
2.00pm to 3.30pm
Followed by refreshments

Monday 23rd February 2015
4.30pm to 6.00pm
Bowland North Seminar room 6, Lancaster University.

We are proud to be delivering these talks in partnership with Lancaster University Confucius Institute and Lancaster City Museum.

All welcome.