Reversing the Work of the Camera's Shutter: Chinese ‘Coolies’, the First World War and Photographic Ephemera in Yang's War by Clive Harvey

The article offers an analysis of Yang's War: A Forgotten Chinese Hero of World War One (2017) by British writer Clive Harvey, with a particular focus on the role of photographic ephemera, borrowed from W. J. Hawkings' collection. Approaching photography as an exercise of exclusion, coercion and control, it shows how the novel highlights the dehumanization of the Chinese Labour Corps as 'coolies', brutalized by the British army at the Western Front. However, at the same time, referring to Judith Butler's and Ariella Azoulay's thought, the article engages with the process of narrative contextualization of ephemera in Yang's War, examining the ethical and affective results of breaking established cognitive and visual frames. Finally, it argues that the novel reclaims the Chinese laborers as complex individuals and participants in the war effort, 'unlearning', together with the reader, an imperial vision of First World War history.