Global May 4th: China and the World in 1919 – Teaching Guide

Vocabulary of Note

• Anarchism – advocating a society without government, individuals interact on a voluntary basis (has come to mean “chaos”)
• Self-determination – where a person, and in this case a nation, has a right to choose its own future
• Iconoclasm – rejection of long held beliefs
• Cannibalism – eating a member of the same species

Names of Note

• Hu Shih (Who Sure) – reformer, educator, philosopher, statesman – See in Resources: Hu Shih, Columbia University
• Liang Qichao (Lee-ang Chee-chow) – fought to overthrow the Qing dynasty – See in Resources: Liang Qichao: China’s First Democrat, AFE
• Qiu Jin (Chee-u Gin) – fought for women’s rights and to overthrow Qing dynasty
• Zou Rong (Zo Ruung) – fought to overthrow Qing dynasty
• Lu Xun (Loo Sue-un) – influential writer of the period

Outline of Presentation – with [Timecode]

Introduction

• The actual date of May 4, 1919 is one where massive protest demonstrations of students broke out spontaneously in Beijing, joined by workers, office employees, and others, when they learned of the provisions of the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI
• Rights held by defeated Germany, on Chinese soil in the Shandong peninsula, were to be awarded to Japan, not returned to China, which had sent 140,000 men to France to help with the war effort against the Germans – map [01:29]
• Protests began in Beijing but spread to other cities throughout China; a major statement of national indignation

“New Culture Movement” of c. 1915–1925 [11:50]

• The “May 4^th Movement” takes its name from the demonstrations on May 4, 1919, but signifies a much larger movement that was synonymous with the New Culture Movement
  • Hu Shih active politically
  • Mr. Science” and “Mr. Democracy”
  • Advocating need for complete cultural renovation
• New Culture Movement had elements of modernism within it

How should we think about the May Fourth Movement today, more than a century later? [03:15]

• May 4^th did not come “out of the blue”; not the first time that students and others had asked for change; China undergoing massive economic and political changes since mid-1800s, in part caused by Western imperialism
• Specific events in China from 1890–1920s gave rise to a new way of thinking about solutions to challenges facing country
  • 1839–1942: Opium war and foreign settlements on Chinese soil
  • 1851–1864: Taiping rebellion
  • 1894–95: Sino-Japanese war of 1895; China defeated by Japan (first time ever)
  • 1911–1912: Overthrow of the Qing dynasty – Republican Revolution
  • 1912 onward: Foreign rights on China’s soil remained as well as political divisions in the country
• Global colonial order at the time of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919

Demands for change – but differing views on how to effect change [06:00]

• Much social change taking place at the same time, with economic changes, factories, coal mines, railroads rise of labor throughout the country
• Some advocated constitutional monarchy; restoration of a Chinese/Han Dynasty; Republican government, socialism
• Some located China’s problem in its own culture; had to begin by denouncing old culture – iconoclasts [8:00]
• Social and political progress can take place only if old culture is annihilated
• Lu Xun – writes “Diary of a Madman” 1918

May 4, 1919 Protests – tipping point [09:00]

• What made the Chinese students to angry that they launched this spontaneous protest?
• Global context: Koreans march on March 1, 1919 protesting Japanese occupation [13:46]
• Workers support and go on strike; Shanghai becomes center of the movement [14:40]
  • Society at large involved; demonstrates how politics will evolve in China

How did May 4, 1919 impact the “New Culture Movement”? [15:30]

• Augmented it; May 4^th Movement built on the ideas of the New Culture Movement
• Discussion of what the new society should look like
  • Socialism is one option favored by some
  • Students are disillusioned with West
  • Chinese Communist Party formed in Shanghai in 1921
  • Socialism not the only ideology proposed; no single school of thought dominated
• Important point is that it opened new ways of thinking about how to organize Chinese society and government
• Demonstrated that the population would be involved in politics