OriginsOrigins 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

Q1Q1

The May 4th Movement can best be described as a reaction against foreign involvement in China?

B) True

C) False

Chen DuxiuChen Duxiu

May 4, 1919May 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…”

4 May 1919, Beijing4 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

Movement SpreadsMovement SpreadsMay-June 1919May-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

Intellectual RevolutionIntellectual 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

Lu Xun-author of “The Lu Xun-author of “The True Story of Ah Q”True Story of Ah Q”

“Our vaunted Chinese civilization is only a feast of human flesh

prepared for the high and mighty”

Intellectual ConflictIntellectual 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

Li DazhaoLi Dazhao

CCP FoundedCCP 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

Key FeaturesKey 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

RecapRecap

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