The Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, often referred to as the Work-Study Movement (;
French: ''Mouvement Travail-Études''), was a series of work-study programs which brought Chinese students to France and Belgium to work in factories as a way to pay for their study of French culture and Western science. The programs aimed to train Chinese radicals between the ages of 16 and 30 through first hand experience in a workers' movement.
The programs were organized between 1912 and 1927 largely by a group of
Chinese anarchists who had come to Paris and wanted to introduce French science and social idealism to China.
After organizing smaller-scale programs starting in 1908, in 1916, after the outbreak of
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the Chinese organizers worked with the Chinese and French governments to establish the Diligent Work-Frugal Study program, which brought less educated Chinese workers, and continued to bring students after the 1919 end of the war. In all, several thousand Chinese came to France as student-workers, though not all as formal members of a program. They included future leaders of the
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
such as
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
and
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
, as well as others who went on to prominent roles in China.
The movement is commemorated in a small museum, the Historical Museum of French-Chinese Friendship, in the town of
Montargis where many of the participant students resided.
Origins
Well before Marxist socialism entered China, Chinese anarchists took up the cause of labor and educating the working class. The leaders of the
Chinese Anarchist movement in Paris—
Li Shizeng,
Wu Zhihui
Wu Jingheng (), commonly known by his courtesy name Wu Zhihui (Woo Chih-hui, ; 1865–1953), also known as Wu Shi-Fee, was a Chinese linguist and philosopher who was the chairman of the 1912–13 Commission on the Unification of Pronunciatio ...
,
Zhang Renjie.
Wang Jingwei
Wang Zhaoming (4 May 188310 November 1944), widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei, was a Chinese politician who was president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan. He was in ...
,
Wu Yuzhang, and
Cai Yuanpei—supported
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...
but urged him to add a social and cultural aspect to his program of political revolution. They argued that individuals could not liberate themselves, but that educated men had the responsibility as teachers to use moral education and personal rectitude to show others the way. At the time, most students who went abroad went on government scholarships to Japan, though the
Chinese Educational Mission of 1872–1881 and the
Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program sent students to the United States. The Paris anarchists were eager to establish interchange with France, which they regarded as a progressive and secular society.

In 1908 Li Shizeng planned the first Work-Study program as a way to bring young Chinese to France. He opened the
Usine de la Caséo-Sojaïne, which manufactured soy products for the French market. The workers' study would be financed by working in his factory and their character would be uplifted by his regimen of moral instruction. This first Work-Study program eventually brought 120 workers to France. Li aimed to take these worker-students, who he called "ignorant" and "superstitious," and make them into knowledgeable and moral citizens who on their return home would become models for a new China. They received instruction in Chinese, French, and science and were required to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, and gambling.
In April 1912, excited by the success of the Chinese revolution and the prospect of the new-born Republic of China, Li, Zhang Renjie, Wu Zhihui, and Cai Yuanpei, who had returned to Beijing, founded the Association for Frugal Study in France (), also known as the Society for Rational French Education (Societé Rationelle des Etudiants Chinois en France). Students traveled from China via the
Siberian railway, a trip which took about eighteen days and cost approximately two hundred dollars. The Society prepared students for inexpensive study (¥600 a year) in France and "by labor and a simple life to cultivate habits of diligence and hard work." In contrast to his own experience when he came in 1902 as an "embassy scholar," which involved only a handful of students from privileged families, Li hoped to welcome hundreds of working-class students into the program. Wu Zhihui, who came from a poor family himself, remarked that actually the program would be especially good for students from rich families: "even if they do not study anything, if at least they learn how to clean toilets it will be worth it."
The Association opened a preparatory school in Beijing which offered aspiring students a six-month course in French. When the first group of 30 student-workers for his factory reached France in January 1913, Li arranged for them to be admitted to the College at Montargis, south of Paris, where his warm relations with city officials made arrangements easier. The Association established a workers' school near the factory, in which Li and Wu taught the Chinese and French languages, and general scientific knowledge. In addition to making workers more knowledgeable, work-study would eliminate their "decadent habits" and transform them into morally upright and hard-working citizens. A strict regimen was imposed—no smoking, gambling or alcohol—and the workers were expected to devote their spare time to study. In all, this program brought more than 120 students to France before it was closed down in 1913 by
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 18596 June 1916) was a Chinese general and statesman who served as the second provisional president and the first official president of the Republic of China, head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916 and ...
, the new president of China, who regarded its leaders as associates of his rival, Sun Yat-sen.
The Diligent Work-Frugal Study program
The outbreak of war in 1914 led France to recruit Chinese workers for factory work and heavy manual labor. The
Chinese Labor Corps in France eventually brought more than 130,000 workers, mostly from
North China
North China () is a list of regions of China, geographical region of the People's Republic of China, consisting of five province-level divisions of China, provincial-level administrative divisions, namely the direct-administered municipalities ...
villages. In June 1915, Li and his Paris friends took this opportunity to provide schooling and training. The Work-Study program was renewed, though on a different basis, bringing less educated workers rather than students. By March 1916 their Paris group, the Société Franco-Chinoise d'Education () was directly involved in recruiting and training these workers. The Société had well-placed French backers, mostly on the political left, including
Alphonse Aulard, the first president of the Société, a professor of French history at the
Sorbonne;
Marius Moutet, vice-president and a socialist member of the National Assembly from Lyon; and
Édouard Herriot
Édouard Marie Herriot (; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister (1924–1925; 1926; 1932) and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the f ...
, mayor of Lyon. They pressed the French government to give the Chinese workers technical education as well as factory work. Li wrote extensive articles in the ''Chinese Labor Journal'' (Huagong zazhi), which introduced readers to Western science, arts, fiction, and current events.

By 1917, the Society had established feeder schools in Beijing, Baoding, and Changxingdian, in North China. Students in Hunan wanted to found a preparatory school, but the provincial government at Changsha refused to help. A delegation went to Beijing in February 1918 to consult with Li and Cai. The financial support they obtained from the Beijing government attracted even more students from Hunan, including
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
. While Mao raised funds for the movement, he did not himself study abroad pursuant to it.
Cai and Li told student leaders that the government had little money but would lend them transportation funds, in return, students would be expected to teach laborers in France. The first group of thirty students to go to France repaid the loan within five months, allowing two groups a year to follow.
The new students came from a wide background. The Work-Study movement now offered overseas study to those whose education stopped at the middle-school level or below. The preparatory schools at Baoding and Changxingdian required only that applicants have basic Chinese and that they not possess "bad habits" such as smoking or gambling. The low tuition fees charged by the preparatory schools and the specially reduced boat fares Li Shizeng negotiated with French authorities also increased the numbers of students who could come on the program.
In 1919 and 1920, even after the signing of the peace, the Sino-French Education Association sponsored 17 groups of Chinese students, totaling nearly 1,600, who were placed in factories and schools, including increased numbers of students from the poorer inland provinces of Hunan and Sichuan. Among these were the future leader of the Chinese Communist Party,
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
, then 16 years old, who had been recruited by Wu Yuzhang in Chongqing,
[" Wang Song,]
Chinese Revolutionaries in France
" (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding) and
Xu Teli, then in his early 40s, the future commissar of education at Yan'an in 1937.
Deng arrived in France on October 19, 1920, but within three months the Sichuan Association which sponsored his trip ran out of money. Deng then worked at Schneider & Co., France's largest ordnance manufacturer, in
Creusot, a southern city.
Deng was surprised to see white people treat Chinese like slaves in Shanghai and other ports along the way. Although he and many of his Chinese colleagues had considered themselves economically well off in China, they now worked long hours in poor conditions while they saw French families living in luxury unknown in China. Deng learned how to use an industrial welder, a skill which proved useful when he was deposed from power during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
and sent to work in a factory.
The Lyon incident and the decline of the program
In 1921, word spread that Wu Zhihui was bringing one-hundred students from Guangdong and Guangxi provinces who were to be given first preference in enrolling at the Institute in Lyon. Worker-students already in France, unhappy with their miserable conditions and fearful that their stipends were about to be cut off, went to Lyon to protest. The protests escalated into riots which led to the expulsion of their leaders from France. The "Lyon Incident" turned the younger generation of students into angry critics who dismissed anarchism as a revolutionary doctrine and rejected older leaders such as Wu, Li, and Cai Yuanpei. The Institute survived but did not play the hoped for central role in Sino-French relations.
Assessment and impact
The student-workers did not all learn the lessons in French civilization that the organizers hoped. One student,
Wang Ruofei, a future Chinese communist leader, sounded satisfied when he wrote
:Our laboring spirit convinced us and we felt that these clouds of black smoke were also important products of culture and that these rough and ready laborers were, after all, leading the true way of life and were the builders of civilization. Why should I reject such a way of life?
However,
Chen Yi, who later became a high ranking communist general, worked at a
Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
plant and complained that factory life had nothing to do with the ideals of
equality, freedom and fraternity supposedly characteristic of French society. Rather, it had shown him the "evil nature" of European capitalism at first hand.
Among the radical students who came to France in 1919 were
Cai Hesen, Chen Yi,
Li Fuchun, and Cai Chang, all friends of Mao Zedong from Hunan province. Mao himself remained in China. Cai Hesen wrote to Mao in August and September 1920 to share his experiences and expound on the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat which he learned in France. He urged Mao to prepare for an "October 1917 style" revolution in China. A centralized vanguard party which would usher in a proletarian dictatorship was essential, Cai insisted, in order to combat anarchism on the one hand and bourgeois dictatorship on the other. France would not be China's ally and model, he concluded, but the Soviet Union.
Student-workers in France who went on to leadership roles in the
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
included
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
,
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
,
Cai Hesen, Chen Yi,
Li Fuchun,
Li Lisan,
Li Weihan
Li Weihan (; 2 June 1896 – 11 August 1984) was a Chinese Communist Party politician. After pursuing his studies in France in 1919–20, he returned to China for the first 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, National Congress o ...
,
Nie Rongzhen
Nie Rongzhen ( zh , s = 聂荣臻 , p = Niè Róngzhēn , w = Nieh Jung-chen ; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He died as the last People's Liberation Army (PLA) marshal.
Biography
Nie was b ...
,
Wang Ruofei,
Xiang Jingyu,
Xu Deheng,
Xu Teli,
Zhao Shiyan
Zhao Shiyan (; 13 April 1901–19 July 1927) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and former Chinese premier Li Peng's uncle.
Biography
Zhao was born in Youyang Zhou, Sichuan (now Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing), on 13 ...
, and
Zhu De
Zhu De; (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
. Participants in the program or those who worked with them who went on to prominent roles in other areas included
Li Huang, founder of the
Chinese Youth Party.
Program students were overwhelmingly male, though there were perhaps forty women. Those who went on to become prominent communists include
Zhang Yibao,
Cai Chang, and
Xiang Jingyu. Others include
Zheng Yuxiu (better known in France as Tcheng Yu-hiu or Soumé Tcheng), who took a degree in law at the Sorbonne, married the diplomat
Wei Daoming, and became an influential jurist and supporter of the
Chinese Nationalist Party
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the sole ruling party of the country during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until its relocation to Taiwan, and in Taiwan ruled under ...
.
Historical Museum of French-Chinese Friendship

The
Historical Museum of French-Chinese Friendship (; zh, 中国旅法勤工俭学蒙达尔纪纪念馆, ) was created by the government of the
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Hunan
Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...
in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, which purchased the building in central Montargis in June 2015 and had the museum inaugurated on 27 August 2016. The museum mainly celebrates the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement,
of which more than 300 participants came to Montargis.
The museum occupies the three main floors of a house in which several Chinese students resided in the era of the Work-Study Movement, on 15 rue Raymond Tellier in the historical center of Montargis. It chronicles the Chinese presence in Montargis in the 1910s and 1920s, starting from a seminal meeting on 16 November 1912 when educator
Li Shizeng (1881-1973) first persuaded the town's municipal council to promote visits by Chinese students. The museum describes the stays in Montargis of a number of major Chinese figures of the first revolutionary generation, including
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
(1904-1997) and
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
(1898-1976) but also
Cai Chang (1900-1990),
Cai Hesen (1895-1931),
Chen Yi (1901-1972),
Li Fuchun (1900-1975),
Li Weihan
Li Weihan (; 2 June 1896 – 11 August 1984) was a Chinese Communist Party politician. After pursuing his studies in France in 1919–20, he returned to China for the first 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, National Congress o ...
(1896-1984),
Nie Rongzhen
Nie Rongzhen ( zh , s = 聂荣臻 , p = Niè Róngzhēn , w = Nieh Jung-chen ; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He died as the last People's Liberation Army (PLA) marshal.
Biography
Nie was b ...
(1899-1992),
Xiang Jingyu (1895-1928) and
Zhao Shiyan
Zhao Shiyan (; 13 April 1901–19 July 1927) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and former Chinese premier Li Peng's uncle.
Biography
Zhao was born in Youyang Zhou, Sichuan (now Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing), on 13 ...
(1901-1927) among others.
A section is also dedicated to
China–France relations since the diplomatic recognition of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
by
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
in 1964.
See also
*
Zhu De
Zhu De; (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
Notes
References and further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Le mouvement travail-études" Présentation de l’Institut Franco-chinois de Lyon
Bibliothèque Municipale De Lyon
{{portal bar, France, China
1910s in China
1920s in China
Anarchism in China
China in World War I
France in World War I
China–France relations
Study abroad programs
Chinese Communist Revolution