What was may 4th movement

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Sign in via your Institution. The way out of China's problems, many believed, was to adopt Western notions of equality and democracy and to abandon the Confucian approach which stressed hierarchy in relationships and obedience.

Science and democracy became the code words of the day. Chen Duxiu, "Our Final Awakening" Chen Duxiu was dean of Peking University in , a leader of the "new culture" movement, and editor of New Youth magazine. In the excerpt below from his essay "Our Final Awakening" Chen laments the weakness of China's national strength and civilization, but cautions those who think that democracy and constitutional government can be easily established in China.

First, he argues, there must be a change in the thought and character of the people such that their attitudes will support constitutional government.

Without a new culture, there will be no new political system. This same argument can be heard in the China of the s. In , Chiang Kai-shek Jiang Jieshi, , the leader of China, heralded the "New Life Movement" which was to rally the Chinese people against the Communists and build up morale in a nation that was besieged with corruption, factionalism, and opium addiction.

Rather than turning away from Confucian values as did the May 4 Movement, Chiang Kai-shek used the Confucian notion of self-cultivation and correct living for this movement. Here we see an attempt to revitalize what was seen by Chiang as the "essence" of being Chinese.

Mao Zedong's writings from the s, before the Communists took power, highlight the theme of "borrowing but preserving" from a different perspective. Mao was an arch-critic of traditional Chinese culture, but in applying the thoughts of Marx and Lenin which are Western to China he still cautioned that the Chinese Communists must not forget their own history, and that Communist ideology must have Chinese characteristics.

In the speech excerpted below, Mao is scolding those in the Party who are blindly following the ideas of Marx and Lenin without adapting it to the Chinese situation, which Mao thought would be made "better" by a revolution to wipe out the old ways and establish new ones.

Although a few Party members and sympathizers have undertaken this work, it has not been done in an organized way. Many Party members are still in a fog about Chinese history, whether of the last hundred years or of ancient times. May 4, , known as Wusi in China, is a significant day in modern Chinese history. The country had contributed thousands of workers to the Allied effort during World War I, but instead of being rewarded at the Paris Peace Conference , German holdings in China were transferred to Japanese control.

Protests against the deal that targeted autocratic Chinese leaders swept across the country, and under popular pressure, the Chinese delegation did not sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Although territories in the Shandong Penninsula were given to the Japanese, the protests were ultimately successful in showcasing the power of collective action and building anti-imperialist sentiment.