Abstract

The Hat Club at Hughes Hall College will be hosting a special lecture by prof. Xu Guoqi on Tuesday 28 February.

Prof. Xu received his PhD in history from Harvard University and is a tenured full professor of history at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a visiting fellow at Hughes Hall.

Prof. Xu is the world leading expert of international history of modern China, First World War, and Olympic Games in China. At the Hat Club, he will give a seminar titled: “Chinese support for a European war: strangers on the Western front during the Great War”.

This talk will focus on a long forgotten story of 140,000 Chinese laborers who came to Europe to support the war efforts of Great Britain, France, and later the United States during the First World War. In his talk, Prof. Xu will explain their strange journey to the West and its significance to Chinese and Western histories.