Editing May Fourth Movement (section)

== Significance ==
[[File:Memorial to the May 4th Movement.jpg|thumb|A monument to the May Fourth Movement in [[Dongcheng District, Beijing]]]]
{{New Culture Movement}}
Scholars rank the New Culture and May Fourth Movements as significant turning points, as [[David Der-wei Wang]] said, "it was the turning point in China's search for literary modernity",{{sfnp|Wang|2017|p=2}} along with the abolition of the civil service system in 1905 and the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911. The challenge to traditional Chinese values, however, was also met with strong opposition, especially from parts of the [[Kuomintang]]. From their perspective, the movement destroyed the positive elements of Chinese tradition and placed a heavy emphasis on direct political actions and radical attitudes, characteristics associated with the emerging Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Two of the CCP's founding members, [[Li Dazhao]] and [[Chen Duxiu]], were leaders of the movement. The CCP viewed it more favorably, although remaining suspicious of the early phase which emphasized the role of enlightened intellectuals, not revolution.{{sfnp|Schoppa|2019|pp=177–179}} Li and Chen were the most influential promoters of [[Marxism]] in China during the May Fourth period.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huang |first=Yibing |title=An Ideological History of the Communist Party of China |publisher=Royal Collins |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-487-80391-9 |editor-last=Zheng |editor-first=Qian |volume=2 |location=Montreal |page=7 |translator-last=Sun |translator-first=Li |translator-last2=Bryant |translator-first2=Shelly}}</ref> In its broader sense, the May Fourth Movement led to the establishment of radical intellectuals who went on to mobilize peasants and workers into the CCP and gain the organizational strength that would solidify the success of the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]].{{sfnp|Hao|1997}}

During the May Fourth Movement, the group of intellectuals with communist ideas grew steadily, such as [[Chen Tanqiu]], [[Zhou Enlai]], Chen Duxiu, and others, who gradually appreciated Marxism's power. This promoted the [[sinicization]] of Marxism and provided a basis for the birth of the CCP and [[socialism with Chinese characteristics]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chan |first=Adrian |title=Chinese Marxism |publisher=Continuum |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-826-47307-3}}</ref>

The legacy of the May Fourth Movement is embraced both by the CCP and its critics, who express different understandings of the movement and its importance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Šebok |first=Filip |title=Contemporary China: a New Superpower? |publisher=Routledge |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-032-39508-1 |editor-last=Kironska |editor-first=Kristina |page=24 |chapter=Historical Legacy |doi=10.4324/9781003350064-3 |editor-last2=Turscanyi |editor-first2=Richard Q.}}</ref>

Kuomintang members such as [[Luo Jialun]], Shao Lizi and Duan Xipeng played an active role in the Movement, and some Kuomintang leaders claimed that their party and its founder Sun Yat-sen were active in leading the movement. However, Kuomintang influence on the Movement was minimal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Joseph T. Chen |title=The May Fourth Movement in Shanghai |date=1971 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004025677 |pages=22–23}}</ref> In [[British Malaya]], May Fourth-influenced riots in Penang and Singapore involving Kuomintang teachers and sympathetic students led the British to pass the Registration of Schools Ordinance, an attempt to remove Kuomintang influence from local education. From 1922, the British also instituted a ban on the Kuomintang itself.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ching Fatt Yong, R. B. McKenna · |title=The Kuomintang movement in British Malaya, 1912-1949 |date=1990 |publisher=Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore |isbn=9789971691370}}</ref>

=== Birth of Chinese communism ===
{{Chinese Communist Revolution sidebar}}
For many years, the orthodox view in the People's Republic of China was that after the demonstrations of 1919 and their subsequent suppression, the discussion of possible policy changes became more and more politically realistic. Influential leaders such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao shifted to the left and became founders of the CCP in 1921, while other intellectuals became more sympathetic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shan |first=Patrick Fuliang |title=Chinese Ideology |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-000-42224-5 |editor-last=Shiping |editor-first=Hua |pages=94–110 |chapter=Li Dazhao and the Chinese Embracement of Communism}}</ref> Originally [[Voluntarism (philosophy)|voluntarist]] or [[nihilist]] figures like [[Li Shicen]] and [[Zhu Qianzhi]] made similar turns to the left as the 1920s saw China become increasingly turbulent.{{sfnp|Chiang|2020|p=114}} In 1939, [[Mao Zedong]] claimed that the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of the Chinese Communist Revolution:
{{Blockquote|The May Fourth Movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the May Fourth Movement was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and development of new social forces in that period, a powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses and the new national bourgeoisie. Around the time of the May Fourth Movement, hundreds of thousands of students courageously took their place in the van. In these respects the May Fourth Movement went a step beyond the Revolution of 1911.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mao |first=Zedong |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_13.htm |title=Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung |publisher=Foreign Languages Press |year=1952 |volume=II |location=Beijing |chapter=The May Fourth Movement |orig-date=1939 |via=marxists.org}}</ref>}}

Paul French argues that the only victor of the Treaty of Versailles in China was communism, as rising public anger led directly to the formation of the CCP. The Treaty also led to Japan pursuing its conquests with greater boldness, which [[Wellington Koo]] had predicted in 1919 would lead to the outbreak of war between China and Japan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=French |first=Paul |title=Betrayal in Paris: How the Treaty of Versailles led to China's Long Revolution |publisher=Penguin |year=2016 |pages=74–78}}</ref>

[[File:Ussr Day of the October Revolution 1938.jpg|thumb|A rally on the 21st anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia]]
Western-style liberal democracy had previously had a degree of traction among Chinese intellectuals. Still, after Versailles, which was viewed as a betrayal of China's interests, it lost much of its attractiveness. [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[Fourteen Points]], despite being rooted in [[moralism]], were seen as Western-centric and hypocritical.{{sfnp|Chiu-Duke|2020|p=58}} Many Chinese intellectuals believed that the United States had done little to convince the other nations to adhere to the Fourteen Points and observed that the United States had declined to join the [[League of Nations]]. As a result, they turned away from the Western liberal democratic model. With the [[October Revolution]] in Russia in 1917, Marxism began to take hold in Chinese intellectual thought, particularly among those already on the Left. Chinese intellectuals such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao began serious study of Marxist doctrine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shan |first=Patrick Fuliang |title=A Century of Student Movements in China: The Mountain Movers, 1919–2019 |publisher=Lexington |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-793-60916-8 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Xiaobing |location=Lanham, MD |pages=3–22 |chapter=Assessing Li Dazhao’s Role in the New Cultural Movement |editor-last2=Fang |editor-first2=Qiang}}</ref>

=== Cultural ===
The May Fourth Movement focused on opposing Confucian culture and promoting a new culture. As a continuation of the [[New Culture Movement|New Culture movement]], the May Fourth Movement greatly influenced the cultural field. The slogans of "democracy" and "science" advocated in the New Culture Movement were designed to attack the old culture and promote the new culture. This purpose can be summed up in a sentence from David Wang: "It was the turning point in China's search for literary modernity."{{sfnp|Wang|2017|p=2}} As historian Wang Gungwu notes, the May Fourth Movement became subsequently identified as the predecessor and inspiration for the later [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gungwu |first=Wang |year=1980 |title=May Fourth and the GPCR: The Cultural Revolution Remedy |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=674–690 |doi=10.2307/2757067 |jstor=2757067}}</ref>

Participants at the time, such as [[Hu Shih]], referred to this era as the "Chinese Renaissance", because there was an intense focus on science and experimentation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hu |first=Shih |title=The Chinese Renaissance: The Haskell Lectures, 1933 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1934}}</ref> In [[Chinese literature]], the May Fourth Movement is regarded as the watershed after which the modern Chinese literature began and the use of [[written vernacular Chinese]] gained currency over [[Literary Chinese]], eventually replacing it in formal works.{{sfnp|Wang|2017|pp=15–16}} Intellectuals were driven toward expressing themselves using the spoken tongue under the slogan {{zht|c=我手寫我口|tr=my hand writes what my mouth speaks}}, although the change was gradual: Hu had already argued for the use of the modern vernacular language in literature in his 1917 essay "Preliminary discussion on literary reform".{{sfnp|Hockx|2017|pp=265–270}}

In 1917, [[Chen Hengzhe]] published the short story ''One Day'' ({{zhi|c=一日}}) in an overseas student quarterly ({{zhi|留美学生季报}})—a year before the publication of [[Lu Xun]]'s ''[[Diary of a Madman (Lu Xun)|Diary of a Madman]]'' and ''[[The True Story of Ah Q]]'' (not published until 1921), which has often been incorrectly credited as the first vernacular Chinese fiction.{{sfnp|Hockx|2017|pp=265–270}}{{sfnp|Wang|2017|pp=254–259}}

More ordinary people also began to try to get in touch with new cultures and learn from foreign cultures. Joseph Chen said: "This intellectual ferment had already had an effect in altering the outlook of China's new youth."{{sfnp|Chen|1971|pp=18–20}} After the May Fourth Movement, the [[Women writers in Chinese literature|Chinese modern female literature]] developed a literature with modern humanistic spirit, taking women as the subject of experience, thinking, aesthetics, and speech.{{sfnp|Wang|2017|p=16}}

Instead of the formerly euphemistic language for sex, May Fourth reformers used the broader, more explicit term ''xing''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rodriguez |first=Sarah Mellors |title=Reproductive Realities in Modern China: Birth Control and Abortion, 1911–2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-009-02733-5 |page=21}}</ref>

In honor of the May Fourth Movement, May 4 is now celebrated as [[Youth Day (China)|Youth Day]] in China and as [[Literary Day]] in Taiwan.

=== Feminist ===
The domination of Confucian ideologies shaped gender inequalities in Chinese culture, labeling and treating women as second-class citizens. The May Fourth Movement played a crucial role in women's emancipation in China, representing a social and cultural shift toward societal transformation.

Women in the May Fourth Movement were often restricted to indoor speeches and debates, lacking the same freedom of movement as their male counterparts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lopez |first=Hector |year=2016 |title=Daughters of the May Fourth, Orphans of Revolution |url=https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=history-in-the-making |journal=History in the Making |volume=9 |issue=6 |via=Asian History Commons}}</ref> Although most activists and protesters were male, male intellectuals believed women's liberation was essential for a stronger and unified China. They argued that Confucian family structures hindered China's development. Stating that "Women's liberation had to be achieved to save China from disarray and humiliation."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Li |first=Yuhui |year=2000 |title=Women's Movement and Change of Women's Status in China |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1626&context=jiws |journal=Journal of International Women's Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=30–40 |via=Virtual Commons}}</ref> Many supported the movement as they believed that women's emancipation was essential for a modern China. They saw it as intertwined with nationalism and new democratic values driven by the anti-imperialist movement.

=== Economic ===
Anger against Japan led many elements of society to join students in a movement to boycott Japanese products. Many hoped that when Japanese products were suppressed, [[Economic history of China (1912–1949)#Development of domesticated industries|China's national industry]] would benefit.{{sfnp|Frazier|2023|pp=1–18}} However, the strike in Shanghai that occurred in June damaged the economy. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wu |first=Rong |year=2023 |title=The making of 'public opinion': Media and open diplomacy in China's strategy at Versailles and the May Fourth Movement |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=1355–1386 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X22000609 |issn=0026-749X |doi-access=free}}</ref> One of the main reasons was that shop owners were not willing to open their shops during the strike, despite the use of police force.{{sfnp|Frazier|2023|pp=1–18}}