The Chinese Labour Corps

In the Manchurian Province of Shandong, Taoists, Buddhists farm by the yellow river Mount Tai lies here, the Taoists sacred peak Whilst south ofJinan, Buddhist temples stretch Confucius was born here, inQufu A Provinceofgreat spiritual awareness. The Province of Jilin overflows with rice. A monsoon region, with its Heavenly Lake And monster legends, ginseng, fog and flowers You'll hear the tongues of Mandarin spoken here, Mongolian, Korean, melting pot of peoples Recruited from 1916, remote farms Yielded a crop of labourers to the war Reaching Shanghai, its buildings, busy waters, Many thought this was their destination, but.. Shipped across the Pacific. Six days crossing to Canada Sealed into trains, to avoid landing taxes Shipped to Liverpool (where some, already dead, were buried quickly) By train to Folkestone, on to France and Belgium Exploited, paid one franc for a ten hour day Six days per week, civilians under military rule Dying of enemy fire, exhaustion and disease Deployed for loading goods and ammunition Dismantling rail lines, building needed roads Lumberjacking, mining in collieries Unloading ships, and at the great war's close The perilous job of clearing up live minefields The horrid job of clearing up the dead Have you ever seen a corpse that's lain unburied, Bloated, rotting, fly ridden, discoloured? The Chinese labour force were undertakers Lifting and shifting,disembowellingthe earth Giving the soldiers back their lost identity Cleaning the hateful charnel house of Europe And after…refused the right to settle in Britain And by the end of this, their strange adventure Of 80,000, one in four was dead An enormous canvas showing victorious France Surrounded by friends, (Chinese workers too) Was altered after America joined the war. Lacking more canvas space, Chinese were painted over By the American allies, as if their help and sacrifice was nothing The Forgotten of the Forgotten, all ignored.