East Asia in 1919, March First Movement and May Fourth Movement

Timothy Weston's study of Beijing University (hereafter, “Beida”) spotlights how modern Chinese intellectuals positioned themselves politically and socially in the early 20th century. Weston relies on the Beida archives, dailies, journals, and many other sources, to make four contributions. First, Beida's early history shows how literati humanists repositioned themselves during a period of great uncertainty. New style intellectuals had influence because they mastered Western and classical learning. Secondly, Beida's complex history did not break sharply with the past. Earlier accounts of the May Fourth movement obscure the efforts of intellectuals since 1898 to redefine their role. Weston suggests that May Fourth amplified a continuing progression of new and old ways of doing things. Thirdly, political tensions emerged when the university increasingly radicalized after 1911. No more than 20 per cent of Beida students were involved in the New Culture movement. A strong conservative undertow continually challenged radical agendas. Often we hear only the voices of the latter. Finally, Weston assesses Beida's history in light of how the May Fourth movement played out in different locations. In the 1920s, Shanghai replaced Beijing as the leading venue for urban China's cultural and intellectual leaders. Beijing increasingly lost status under warlordism, and the Nationalist shift of the capital to Nanjing refocused Chinese intellectual life on the Chang (Yangtze) delta.

Download Full-text

CHAPTER ONE On the Day of May the Fourth: An Alternative Narrative of the ‘May Fourth’ Movement

Touches of History ◽

10.1163/9789004215146_003 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 11-66

Keyword(s):

May Fourth Movement ◽

Fourth Movement ◽

May Fourth ◽

The May Fourth Movement

Download Full-text

Innovative or Rather Traditional? Confucianising Tragedy in May Fourth China

Translating Wor(l)ds - May Fourth and Translation ◽

10.30687/978-88-6969-465-3/001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Letizia Fusini

Keyword(s):

Critical Discussion ◽

May Fourth Movement ◽

Chinese Context ◽

Fourth Movement ◽

May Fourth ◽

The May Fourth Movement

A key aspect of the May Fourth Movement was the critical discussion of Western tragedy. While the interest in tragedy was sparked by the assumption that China lacked an analogous genre, its interpretation and adaptation to the Chinese context suggests that a traditional ‘indigenous’ filter was applied to define its supposed ‘modernity’. Through cross-comparing Chinese conceptions of beiju 悲剧 in the May Fourth era and traditional Chinese views of bei 悲, this paper will seek to show that the Chinese reception of tragedy was informed by the rejuvenation of traditional ideas rather than the introduction of purely ‘Western’ theories.

Download Full-text

The Other Vernacular: Commoner Knowledge Culture Circa 1919

Translating Wor(l)ds - May Fourth and Translation ◽

10.30687/978-88-6969-465-3/002 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joan Judge

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Cultural Layer ◽

May Fourth Movement ◽

Linguistic Form ◽

Vernacular Language ◽

Fourth Movement ◽

Knowledge Culture ◽

The People ◽

Mass Politics ◽

May Fourth

This essay complicates our understanding of the May Fourth Movement of the late 19teens by isolating a layer of culture that was integral to the era but largely forgotten in later scholarship. This cultural layer of discourse and practice intersected with two of the Movement’s most iconic projects – connecting with “the people” and establishing a vernacular language. This view from the cultural margins helps us excavate the less known byways and potentialities of what has come down to us as an epochal history. It further leads us to question the inevitability of established historical trajectories: from May Fourth populism to the mass politics of the PRC, from the vernacular movement to the linguistic form that stabilized to become baihua.

Download Full-text