2. Origins
Parallels and connections to 1898 reforms
Warlord Era, Japan’s 21 Demands
Treaty of Versailles - Shandong
New intelligentsia: 5 million educated in
West
Beijing University (Peita) founded 1898 –
promoted free expression
New Youth magazine started 1915: edited by
Chen Duxiu – attacked Confucianism
Literary Revolution: attacks on traditional
language led by Hu Shi
3. Q1
The May 4th Movement can best be described as a
reaction against foreign involvement in China?
B) True
C) False
5. May 4, 1919
3000 student demonstrators at Gate of
Heavenly Peace against Versailles Treaty,
Japanese demands and general state of China
Cabinet minister’s house burned
Manifesto declared:
“China’s territory may be conquered, but it
cannot be given away. The Chinese people
may be massacred, but they will not
surrender…”
6. 4 May 1919, Beijing
The May 4th Incident
House burned
Former Chinese envoy to Japan beaten with iron bed
legs
So heavily bruised his body looked like “it was covered
in fish scales” –Rana Mitter
7. Movement Spreads
May-June 1919
Mass demonstrations throughout China
Warlord cabinet resigns
Students joined by the press and the middle class
Sun Yatsen supported protest (but was ambivalent
about movement as a whole)
Japanese goods boycotted
Schools closed
8. Intellectual Revolution
Explosion of new magazines
Attacks on Confucianism
Western ideas promoted
Marxism promoted – New Youth spring 1919 edition (CCP founded 1921)
Women’s rights (Ding Ling),
Workers rights, trade union activity
Peasant rights and education
New educational ideas
New literature, vernacular – Lu Xun
9. Lu Xun-author of “The
True Story of Ah Q”
“Our vaunted Chinese civilization is only a
feast of human flesh
prepared for the high and mighty”
10. Intellectual Conflict
Hu Shi: PROBLEMS
Beware of isms, simple solutions to complex
problems. Solve problems one at a time without
revolution but with PRAGMATISM
Vs
Li Dazhao: ISMS
Solve problems with a complete and thorough socio-
political transformation – revolution - MARXISM
12. CCP Founded
Beijing University converts: Chen Duxiu, Li
Dazhao, Mao Zedong
Comintern agent Voitinsky set up study
groups
July 1921: First Congress of CCP in Shanghai
Organized labour centres, workers’ schools,
strikes
Chinese Seamen’s Union strike: union
recognition, increased pay
13. Key Features
Nationwide student demonstrations against the Versailles Treaty and Japan
Criticism of China’s past – attacks on “Confucius and Sons” – look to the West for solutions –
“keep young while growing old”
New intelligentsia – five million by 1919 – Western schools
Peking (Beijing) National University – founded 1898 – leading scholars: Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao,
Hu Shi
Chen Duxiu’s New Youth magazine – attacks Confucianism – promotes social Darwinism
Language Reform – rejection of classical Chinese – phonetic form of written characters
Literary Revolution – Hu Shi – “Overthrow the painted and powdered literature of the aristocratic
few” – plain, simple expression – literature of the people
Marxism – Bolshevik Revolution in Russia – promoted in special edition of New Youth May 1919 –
‘My Marxist Views’ (Li Dazhao)
Rejected by Hu Shi – more study of problems, less talk of “isms” – argued for pragmatism of John
Dewey
Lu Xun – China dying of suffocation – China as a cannibalistic society due to Confucianism etc
14. Recap
Direct connections to 1898 Reforms e.g.: Beijing University
New Culture movement related but different to May 4th
New Culture focused on literature and culture less than
politics
May 4th Movement an example of ‘Unstable Pluralism’,
e.g.: Weimar Germany
Foreign models popular e.g.: Edison, Ghandi,Marie Curie,
Ataturk and Marx