YMCA and the Anti-illiteracy Movement for the Chinese Laborers in France

About 120,000-200,000 Chinese laborers worked for Allied troops during WWI. 80% of them were illiterate and they encountered many language barriers and difficulties. Some members of the North American YMCA came to Britain and France to help them, especially by teaching them to read. James Yen and his colleagues initiated a new movement to teach the laborers in order to positively affect the construction of a new nation at home. This also blazed a new trail for removing illiteracy in modern China.