The Chinese Labour Corps that served on the Western Front during the First World War was the greatest influx of Chinese ever into Europe. Through the confrontation with the European ‘Other’

the Chinese realised what they had in common

and we see a development of a certain‘groupness’ between intellectuals and illiterate labourers in the Chinese Labour Corps

which had the capacity to devolve in some kind of (proto)nationalism

while exalting the value of Labour. It can be argued that in the cultural transformation of Chinese society of the first half of the 20th century the Chinese labourers and interpreters of the First World War played a hidden

and by consequence

indirect role: they were instrumental in jeopardising the idea that the West was the leading light for intellectuals

and in transforming the way the ‘white’ man was looked upon. Besides "a new national consciousness"

the members of the Chinese Labour Corps had also returned home with the determination to improve themselves and their country.