Chen Wei

Chen Wei was one of approximately 20,000 Chinese seamen who served in the British Merchant Navy during the war. Sailing with the Blue Funnel Line out of Liverpool, he endured U-boat attacks in the Atlantic and Japanese bombing in the Pacific. Chinese merchant seamen were paid a fraction of what their British counterparts received. After the war, many Chinese sailors in Liverpool were forcibly repatriated; Chen was among those who managed to remain and settled in London's Chinatown, where he ran a small business.