May Fourth Movement (redirected from May 4th Movement)

May Fourth Movement (1919), first mass movement in modern Chinese history. On May 4, about 5,000 university students in Beijing protested the Versailles Conference (Apr. 28, 1919) awarding Japan the former German leasehold of Jiaozhou, Shandong prov. Demonstrations and strikes spread to Shanghai, and a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods followed. The May Fourth Movement began a patriotic outburst of new urban intellectuals against foreign imperialists and warlords. Intellectuals identified the political establishment with China's failure in the modern era, and hundreds of new periodicals published attacks on Chinese traditions, turning to foreign ideas and ideologies. The movement split into leftist and liberal wings. The latter advocated gradual cultural reform as exemplified by Hu Shih who interpreted the pragmatism of John Dewey, while leftists like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao introduced Marxism and advocated political action. The movement also popularized vernacular literature, promoted political participation by women, and educational reforms.

Bibliography

See Hu Shih, The Chinese Renaissance (2d ed. 1964); V. Schwarcz, Chinese Enlightenment Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May 4th Movement of 1919 (1986).

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May Fourth Movement

Chinese intellectual revolution and sociopolitical reform movement (1917–21). In 1915 young intellectuals inspired by Chen Duxiu began agitating for the reform and strengthening of Chinese society through acceptance of Western science, democracy, and schools of thought, one objective being to make China strong enough to resist Western imperialism. On May 4, 1919, reformist zeal found focus in a protest by Beijing's students against the Versailles Peace Conference's decision to transfer former German concessions in China to Japan. After more than a month of demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts of Japanese goods, the government gave way and refused to sign the peace treaty with Germany. The movement spurred the successful reorganization of the Nationalist Party and gave birth to the Chinese Communist Party. See also Treaty of Versailles.

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May Fourth Movement 

a mass anti-imperialist movement in China in May and June 1919.

Influenced by the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the May Fourth’ Movement developed in response to the decision of the Paris Peace Conference not to return to China the former German concessions in Shantung, which had been captured by the Japanese. It began on May 4,1919, in Peking, where students demonstrated against the decision and the betrayal of Chinese national interests by the venal leaders of the Peking government. The police arrested several dozen demonstrators; the students of Peking responded the following day by boycotting classes and declaring a strike.

The action of the students in Peking was supported by students in other cities, and in early June workers, the urban petite bourgeoisie, and the nationalist bourgeoisie joined the struggle. The principal center of the movement shifted from Peking to Shanghai, where 50,000–70,000 workers and nearly all the merchants went on strike. Under pressure from the popular masses, the Peking government was forced to dismiss the three officials who had compromised themselves most by their ties with the Japanese imperialists. The May Fourth Movement provided a strong impetus to the development of the working-class and national liberation movement in China and fostered the dissemination of Marxism throughout the country.

REFERENCE

Dvizhenie “4 maia” 1919 goda v Kitae. Moscow, 1971.

V. P. ILIUSHECHKIN