Chinese Labour Corps

These silk paintings and watercolour studies are based on images of the Chinese Labour Corps from the Imperial War Museum archive. Over 140,000 Chinese men were employed by the British and French during the First World War for manual labour, often involving highly dangerous tasks such as recovering bodies and unexploded shells from the battlefield. Despite being the first large-scale migration of Chinese people to Europe, they are little known today.

The archival photographs show the labourers loading sacks, sawing timber and hauling carts as well as celebrating festivals and interacting with British officers. How do we remember and commemorate thousands of unknown labourers? Surviving letters dictated by the largely illiterate men to their families along with skilfully carved sculptures present a different side to their arduous existence. The paintings attempt to humanise men of whom little is known and add complexity to their lives which, although hard, were not devoid of agency or creativity.

These paintings were shown in a solo exhibition in 2024 at Marylebone Art Space, London, Journey to the West.