May Fourth Movement

May Fourth Movement, student demonstrations that took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on May 4, 1919. The term is also used in a broader sense to refer to the trend among Chinese youth in the 1910s and 1920s towards exploring Western culture in search of models for China’s modernization.

On May 4, 1919, about 3,000 students from universities in the Beijing area demonstrated in Tiananmen Square to protest against the Treaty of Versailles, which had been recently negotiated to set international terms at the end of World War I. The treaty transferred Germany’s rights in China’s Shandong province to Japan, instead of restoring them to China. Angry at the Chinese government for agreeing to such terms, students marched on government offices and clashed violently with Beijing police. News of the student protests spread nationwide through progressive newspapers and journals, inspiring merchant boycotts and workers’ strikes. This political crisis galvanized intellectuals to search for ways to inspire Chinese nationalism, modernize Chinese culture, and strengthen the Chinese nation against Japanese and Western imperialism.

Beijing University was the centre of the May Fourth Movement. Academics such as Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu gave lectures and published articles criticizing Confucianism, which they believed hindered China’s modernization, and advocating scientific progress and democracy for China. Young men and women called for women’s rights and condemned the tradition of arranged marriage. Writers explored new forms of literature and language. Others, such as Li Dazhao, Qu Qiubai, and Mao Zedong, explored Marxist political and social thought as a path for China’s future.

The May Fourth Movement inspired nationalism in a generation of Chinese youth, revitalizing the Kuomintang (KMT) and leading to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party. Both the People’s Republic of China (mainland Communist China) and Taiwan, where the Kuomintang moved their government in 1949, consider the May Fourth Movement a cornerstone of China’s modern identity.