The May 4th Movement

[SunWuKong]

The May 4th Movement
A Short Summary in Remembrance
by Radford Tam

The May Fourth Movement represents the birth of modern intellectualism in China. May 4th, 1919, was the date of the first ever student demonstration. It happened in Tiananmen Square, just like the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. They were joined by workers and merchants to protest against foreign occupation.

China’s last dynasty, the Qing, had ended in 1911. In its place, the socialist Kuomintang (KMT) had attempted to set up a government that was supposed to be modeled after western style democracy. However, the KMT’s power base at the time was much decentralised. It was more of a loosely network of alliances with local warlords, who, more often than not, competed with each other for power. The KMT was very weak and China continued to be plagued by foreign imperialistic powers of Europe and Japan.

World War 2 broke out in 1914, and effectively ended in 1918. China had aided the Allied forces in the hopes that imperialistic powers will agree to leave China in return for its help. During the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, however, it was revealed that Japan had made agreements with European powers secret to China to cede all Germany colonies and imperialistic privileges to Japan. Chinese diplomats refused to agree to this, but that mattered little to the European powers and Japan.

News of the Treaty of Versailles reached China, and it enraged students and intellectuals. They headed to Tiananmen Square to protest and demonstrate, and were soon joined by workers and merchants. Soon, the protests spread to other major cities in China and people took to the streets in protest. This was to be the first ever student protest in Chinese history, and later was named the May Fourth Movement.

The May Fourth Movement did not just signify an outcry of the Chinese people against foreign imperialism. It was also the start of a movement of social self-criticism. Students and intellectuals began advocating against certain aspects of Chinese traditions that were detrimental to China and that made China a weak nation. Confucianism is a famous example of this, as people saw it as a major cause of the Qing dynasty’s downfall. Western modernism and science was encouraged. People were also discouraged with western democracy, as they see that it did not save China from being betrayed to Japan. Intellectuals started looking to the success of the 1917 Communist revolution in Russia, and a few years later, the Chinese Communist Party was formed.

Today, the May Fourth Movement is not only remembered as the day that the Chinese people cried out in protest of foreign occupation, but also as the start of new ways of thinking in China.

[teaz0r]

tirak chalard :)

[ChinaLama]

wow rad, didn't know you were THAT big a May 4th'er. In a month, it'll be June 4. wonder if anyone will write a remembrance to that. :P

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by ChinaLama@May 4 2003, 08:11 PM
wow rad, didn't know you were THAT big a May 4th'er. In a month, it'll be June 4. wonder if anyone will write a remembrance to that. :P

yeah i probably will. i've got that book The Tianenmen Papers. it came out in asia when i was in HK and i got the non-american english version. but they jammed so much official documents in there that half-way through the book, it became too boring and i couldn't finish it. :P