May Fourth Movement | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

During the 1910s and early 1920s, China was plagued by the twin forces of warlordism and imperialism. Military commanders had seized control over various sections of China, resulting in incessant fighting. Taking advantage of this situation, numerous foreign powers carved out spheres of influence up and down China's coast. Despite this chaotic environment, this period—known either as the May Fourth era or the New Culture era— was an exciting and vibrant time for Chinese intellectuals. Individuals of this time called for cultural rejuvenation and the development of a more modern worldview. Without these changes, they warned, China would not free itself from the oppressive forces of warlordism or imperialism or both. Between 1915 and 1923, "new culture" advocates from various groups scrutinized and derided many of China's literary, philosophical, and social traditions.

Many scholars suggest that the May Fourth era started with the 1915 publication of the journal Xin qingnian (New Youth). Edited by Chen Duxiu (1879–1942), the first issue of Xin qingnian called on its readers to be progressive, cosmopolitan, utilitarian, and scientific. In short, Chen asked the youth of China to overthrow the old elements of society and to bring about a national awakening. Confucianism, the preferred symbol of Chinese traditionalism, was a frequent target of the journal. With its emphasis on filial piety, ritualism, hierarchy, and orthodoxy, Confucianism was seen as antimodern and regressive. Within a few months, Xin qingnian became a widely read and influential publication among China's student population.

In 1917, Chen was made dean of the School of Letters at Peking (Beijing) University, and the academy quickly became the focal point of what was to be the May Fourth Movement. Cai Yuanpei (1867–1940), the university president, was committed to making the school a center of academic freedom and intellectual liberalism. By the late 1910s, Peking University was a hotbed of intellectual debate involving students, faculty, and independent writers.

In addition to Chen, Cai also brought Hu Shi (1891–1962), a young literature professor, to the campus. Educated in the United States, Hu believed that literature was at the heart of China's cultural problems. With its emphasis on specialized norms, obscure vocabulary, and terse diction, the classical written language was inaccessible to all but the most educated. Hu suggested that the solution was to write in the vernacular, enabling those with a more rudimentary education to participate in China's world of letters. In the pages of Xin qingnian, Hu argued that writers should avoid the use of classical allusions, discard stale literary phrases, and quit imitating the ancients. Instead, he suggested that writers be true to their own feelings. Only then would they produce something with meaning and substance. This emphasis on vernacular literature, or baihua, led to a greater democratization of China's literary world.

Though Hu advocated baihua literature, its greatest practitioner was Lu Xun (1881–1936). Lu Xun was a frequent contributor to Xin qingnian, writing short stories designed to jolt the reading public out of its cultural complacency. One of his better-known stories of this period is "Kuangren riji" ("Diary of a Madman"). In the story, the protagonist repeatedly sees the words "eat people" inscribed in the margins of classical Confucian texts. Convinced that he is living in a cannibalistic society, he becomes mad with suspicion. By the end of the story, Lu Xun has satirically demonstrated that the Confucian social order is based, figuratively if not literally, on cannibalism. By shocking his readers with such imagery, Lu Xun hoped to awaken them to the need for cultural renewal.

As with literature, intellectuals of the time called for democratization in the political arena. Democracy and science, Chen argued in the pages of Xin qingnian, formed the foundation of modern society. Many of China's backward practices, he claimed, could be eliminated or reformed with the assistance of De Xiansheng ("Mr. Democracy") and Sai Xiansheng ("Mr. Science"). By 1919, these and a handful of other eclectic catchphrases circulated around Peking University and, by way of Xin qingnian, throughout China's intellectual communities.

While it is difficult to mark definitively the beginning of the May Fourth era, its chronological focal point is much more precise. The May Fourth Movement refers, in its most limited sense, to the demonstrations of 4 May 1919. On that day, throngs of irate students, educators, and urban workers converged on Beijing's Tiananmen Square to protest the Paris Peace Conference ending World War I. Years earlier, in August 1914, Japan had declared war on Germany and had occupied all German-held territories in China. Since China also participated in the war against Germany, many believed China would regain control over the properties following the war. Bolstered by their faith in self-determination as championed by Woodrow Wilson, the Chinese delegates attending the conference were confident the European powers would recognize the validity of their claims. Instead, Japan's delegates unveiled a handful of treaties signed by Britain, France, and Italy recognizing Japan's demands in China.

The public reaction to the news was swift and powerful. Led by students of Peking University, concerned individuals from throughout the Beijing area congregated to denounce Japan's underhanded and aggressive maneuvers. They also demanded that China's representatives reject the resulting treaty. The crowd, which eventually numbered in the thousands, marched through the streets of Beijing until government troops restored order. Although the whole affair lasted only a few hours, historians consider this May Fourth event vitally important in the development of modern Chinese nationalism.

Despite the protesters' actions in Beijing, the peace conference concluded, and Japan retained control over the Chinese territory (though the Chinese delegation refused to sign the treaty). The incident, however, was far from insignificant. In the days after 4 May, similar protests erupted throughout China. Furthermore, many intellectuals intensified their demands for "national salvation" through cultural reform. In many ways, the May Fourth protest symbolized the concerns of the new culture advocates, and consequently the intellectual movement that swept through China between 1915 and 1923 is often referred to as the May Fourth movement.

In the years after 1919, the May Fourth movement became increasingly ideological. Advocates of anarchism, socialism, syndicalism, and even pragmatism competed in the marketplace of ideas. It was also during this time that the Chinese Communist Party was formed. Organized in Shanghai during summer 1921, the Communist Party embraced the antiestablishment ideals of the May Fourth movement. Since that time, official Communist histories have portrayed the May Fourth era as a period of great patriotic fervor, the turning point between an old, bourgeois democracy and a new, proletarian democracy. Not surprisingly, 4 May is still a national holiday, and May Fourth intellectuals such as Lu Xun are considered patriotic heroes.

By the mid-1920s, China's intellectual debates had become more political and less cultural. The iconoclasm of the earlier years was replaced by new orthodoxies, as political organizations expected their members to conform to the official party line. For this reason, most historians suggest that 1923 marks the approximate end of the May Fourth era. Others, however, contend that the advocates of the movement remained active well beyond 1923. Regardless of the outcome of such debates, the May Fourth movement, with its emphasis on democracy, science, and antitraditionalism, has cast a long shadow over twentieth-century Chinese history.

Chow Tse-tsung. (1960) The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Dirlik, Arif. (1986) "Ideology and Organization in the May Fourth Movement: Some Problems in the Intellectual Historiography of the May Fourth Period." Republican China 12, 1 (November): 3–19.

Schwarcz, Vera. (1986) The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Schwartz, Benjamin, ed. (1972) Reflections on the May Fourth Movement: A Symposium. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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