Modernization Lesson 4: The May Fourth Movement
Contents of this file
Notes on implementing the lesson
Document A: The May Fourth Movement noted 90 years later (Original)
Document B: “My Experience with the May Fourth Movement” (Original)
Document C: “Call to Youth” (Original)
Document D: Call for a “Literary Revolution” (Original)
Document E: The Chinese Renaissance (Original)
Document F: An assessment of the May Fourth Movement (Original)
Document G: An assessment of the May Fourth Movement (Original)
Sources
Background notes for teachers on the May Fourth Movement
Notes on implementing the lesson
Students should complete Contextualization Lessons 1 and 2 and Modernization
Lessons 1, 2 and 3 before beginning this lesson. Teachers can review the file “1
Introduction to the Unit” for details on how this lesson fits into the unit “China: The
Struggle for Modernization.”
Like all lessons in this unit, this lesson implements the Reading Like a Historian
pedagogy developed by the Stanford History Education Group. Teachers should be
familiar with the concepts of sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and
corroborating. Further information is available at sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/45.
The ultimate goal of this lesson is for students to identify the goals of the May Fourth
Movement so that by the end of the unit they can trace the evolution of the
modernization process between 1860 and 2000. Because this topic is not well covered
in most high school textbooks, notice that a section titled “Background notes for
teachers on the May Fourth Movement” is included at the end of this file.
Two worksheets are provided to guide students through the analysis of the documents
below:
Document Analysis Worksheet I, which should be completed separately for
Documents A through E, emphasizes sourcing, close reading, and
contextualizing. Close reading at this point should focus on comprehension of
the information in each document. Students should read critically to identify
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
points where they need additional information to understand the document. They
then practice contextualization by looking for that information in the textbook and
the outline of Chinese history provided in the preceding Contextualization lesson.
Document Analysis Worksheet II is designed to compile information from
Documents A through E. It emphasizes close reading and corroborating. At
this point close reading should focus on information in Documents A through E
that reveals the goals of the May Fourth Movement. Such information should be
recorded on the chart.
Questions 1 and 2 below the chart on Document Analysis Worksheet II require
students to corroborate information from Documents A through E.
Question 3 requires students to read Documents F and G, which are secondary
sources that provide interpretations that historians have made of documents
similar to those the students have just analyzed. Students should read these
professional interpretations only after they have drawn some conclusions of their
own by answering Questions 1 and 2.
Answer keys are provided for all worksheets.
To prepare students for the essay at the end of the unit, ask them to compare the
leadership, goals, and outcome of the May Fourth Movement with those of the previous
efforts to modernize. How has the process evolved from one effort to the next?
See the file “1 Introduction to the Unit” for information on the spelling of Chinese names
and other ways in which the student documents have been edited.
The four Reading Like a Historian skills require students to think in ways that are
probably new for them in history classes. Teachers should not be discouraged by
student resistance to these higher expectations, and teachers should not be surprised if
even at the end of the unit students continue to require support and encouragement to
practice the skills. However, if teachers and students are diligent about following the
procedures outlined in this series of lessons, by the end of the unit they should make
substantial progress in internalizing these important historical thinking skills.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Document A: The May Fourth Movement noted 90 years later
(Original)
The May Fourth Movement is one of the most important cultural and
political movements in modern Chinese history. At the end of the First
World War, in 1918, China was convinced it would be able to reclaim the
territories occupied by the Germans in present-day Shandong Province.
After all, it had fought along with the Allies. However, it was not to be. The
[Chinese] warlord government of the day had secretly struck a deal with the
Japanese, offering the German colonies in return for financial support. The
Allies, on the other hand, acknowledged Japan’s territorial claims in China.
When it became known in China in April 1919 that the negotiations over the
Treaty of Versailles would not honor China’s claims, it gave rise to the
movement.
On May 4, 1919, thousands of college students took to the street, calling
for abrogation of this unequal pact, a boycott of Japanese goods and the
resignations of traitorous officials. Armies were sent to quell the protest,
and more than 30 students were arrested, but more strikes by students and
workers popped up across the nation in the following weeks. Under
pressure from the public, several officials stepped down, including
President Xu Shichang. The Chinese delegation didn’t sign the Treaty of
Versailles.
Source: Published May 2010 in China Today, an English-language, governmentsponsored magazine in China.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Document B: “My Experience with the May Fourth Movement”
(Original)
I was a sixteen-year-old student at the First Normal School for Women in
Tianjin when the May Fourth Movement began in 1919. A period of 30
years has elapsed. Many memories, once fresh and vivid, have been so
diluted by the passage of time that they are now blurred and obscure …
On May 4, 1919, the students in Beijing staged a massive demonstration,
demanding the punishment of traitors and the rejection of the Versailles
Peace Treaty. In a moment of extreme anger, they burned down Chaochia
Lu [the home of the Chinese foreign minister] and beat up many traitors.
The news of this demonstration reached Tianjin the next day, shaking the
façade of complacency to its very foundation. … On May 7 the Tianjin
students staged a demonstration of their own … we also called for the
abolition of the Twenty-one Demands [made by Japan in 1915], the return
of Qingdao [a city the Japanese had occupied], the boycott of Japanese
goods, the use of Chinese goods only, and, most important of all, “We are
determined that we shall not be slaves to any foreigners in our own
country.” …
Keep in mind that the May Fourth Movement occurred at the end of World
War I when new cultures and new ideas, plus the knowledge of the
successful October Revolution in Russia, made a deep impression on
every youth in China. …
… our own intuition told us that a patriotic movement, to be effective, had to
be more than just a students’ movement and that we had to awaken all of
our brethren for the attainment of a common goal. … Many oratorical teams
were organized, and I was elected captain of the speakers for the
Association of Patriotic Women as well as head of the oratorical division for
the Association of Tianjin Students. My duty was to provide speakers in
differently areas on a regular basis.
At the beginning we, as female students, did not enjoy the same freedom of
movement as our male counterparts, insofar as our speaking tours were
concerned. According to the feudal custom of China, women were not
supposed to make speeches in the street; we, therefore, had to do our
work indoors. We gave speeches in such places as libraries and
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
participated in scheduled debates, all inside a hall or a room. The audience
was large and responsive in each of these meetings …
Besides making speeches, we also conducted house-to-house visits which
often took us to more remote areas of the city and also to the slums. Some
of the families we visited received us warmly, while others slammed their
doors in our faces before we could utter a single word. … The Association
of Tianjin Students published a journal which started as a half-weekly but
became a daily shortly afterwards. … it had a circulation of 20,000 – quite
an achievement at that time. …
In the wake of the May Fourth Movement came the feminist movement
which was in fact one of its democratic extensions. Among the demands
we raised at that time were sexual equality, abolition of arranged marriage,
social activities open to women, freedom of romantic love and marriage,
universities open to women students, and employment of women in
government institutions. The first step we took toward sexual equality was
to merge the associations of male and female students in Tianjin to form a
new organization which students of both sexes could join. …
As pioneers in the feminist movement who had had the rare opportunity to
work side by side with men, we female students in the merged association
were conscious of the example we had to set so that no man in the future
could deny women the opportunity to work on the ground of alleged
incompetence. In short, we worked doubly hard. Fortunately, for us, the
male students in the association, having been imbued with the new thought
of the West, were ready to accept us as equals and judged us according to
our performance rather than our sex. Each department, division, or
committee was always headed by two chairpersons, one male and one
female, and the female chairperson had as much authority as her male
counterpart.
Source: Originally written in 1949 by Deng Yingchao, who later married Zhou Enlai, who
was premier of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his
death in 1976.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Document C: “Call to Youth” (Original)
The Chinese compliment others by saying, “He acts like an old man
although still young.” Englishmen and Americans encourage one another
by saying, “Keep young while growing old.” Such is one respect in which
the different ways of thought of the East and West are manifested. Youth is
like early spring, like the rising sun, like trees and grass in bud, like a newly
sharpened blade. It is the most valuable period of life. …
Alas! Do these words really fit the youth of our country? I have seen that,
out of every ten youths who are young in age, five are old in physique; and
out of every ten who are young in both age and physique, nine are old in
mentality. … I carefully propose the following six principles, and hope you
will give them your calm consideration.
1. Be independent, not servile. … The history of modern Europe is
commonly referred to as a “history of emancipation”: the destruction of
monarchical power aimed at political emancipation; the denial of Church
authority aimed at religious emancipation; the rise of the theory of equal
property aimed at economic emancipation; and the suffragist movement
aimed at emancipation from male authority. …
2. Be progressive, not conservative. … it is plain that those races that cling
to antiquated ways are declining, or disappearing, day by day, and the
peoples who seek progress and advancement are just beginning to ascend
in power and strength. … All our traditional ethics, law, scholarship, rites
and customs are survivals of feudalism. When compared with the
achievement of the white race, there is a difference of a thousand years in
thought, although we live in the same period.
3. Be aggressive, not retiring. … Stated in kindly terms, retirement is an
action of the superior man in order to get away from the vulgar world.
Stated in hostile terms, it is a phenomenon of the weak who are unable to
struggle for survival. … Alas! The war steeds of Europe are intruding into
your house. Where can you quietly repose under a white cloud?
4. Be cosmopolitan, not isolationist. … When a nation is thrown into the
currents of the world, traditionalists will certainly hasten the day of its fall,
but those capable of change will take this opportunity to compete and
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
progress. … When its citizens lack knowledge of the world, how can a
nation expect to survive in it?
5. Be utilitarian, not formalistic. … That which brings no benefit to the
practical life of an individual or of society is all empty formalism and the
stuff of cheats. And even though it were bequeathed to us by our
ancestors, taught by the sages, advocated by the government and
worshiped by society, the stuff of cheats is still not worth one cent.
6. Be scientific, not imaginative. … The contribution of the growth of
science to the supremacy of modern Europe over other races is not less
than that of the theory of the rights of man. … Our scholars do not know
science, therefore they borrow the yin-yang school’s notions of auspicious
signs and of the five elements to confuse the world and cheat the people,
and the idea of feng shui to beg for miracles from dry skeletons (spirits).
Source: Chen Duxiu, founder and editor of New Youth magazine, faculty member of
Beijing University, and a founder of the Chinese Communist Party. Originally published
in New Youth magazine in 1915.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Document D: Call for a “Literary Revolution” (Original)
I am willing to be the enemy of the nation’s scholars and raise high the
banner of the “Army of Literary Revolution,” in vocal support of my friend
[Hu Shi]. On the banner will be written large the three great ideological
tenets of our revolutionary army: (1) Down with the ornate, sycophantic
literature of the aristocracy; up with the plain, expressive literature of the
people! (2) Down with stale, pompous classical literature; up with fresh,
sincere realist literature! (3) Down with obscure, abstruse eremitic
literature; up with comprehensible, popularized social literature!
Source: Chen Duxiu, founder and editor of New Youth magazine, faculty member of
Beijing University, and a founder of the Chinese Communist Party. Originally published
in New Youth magazine in February 1917.
Document E: The Chinese Renaissance (Original)
Its leaders know what they want, and they know what they must destroy in
order to achieve what they want. They want a new language, a new
literature, a new outlook on life and society, and a new scholarship. They
want a new language, not only as an effective instrumentality for popular
education, but also as the effective medium for the development of the
literature of a new China. They want a literature that shall be written in the
living tongue of a living people and shall be capable of expressing the real
feelings, thoughts, inspirations, and aspirations of a growing nation. They
want to instill into the people a new outlook on life which shall free them
from the shackles of tradition and make them feel at home in the new world
and its new civilization. They want a new scholarship which shall not only
enable us to understand intelligently the cultural heritage of the past, but
also prepare us for active participation in the work of research in the
modern sciences. …
The problem was first seen by all early reformers as the problem of finding
a suitable language which could serve as an effective means of educating
the vast millions of children and of illiterate adults. They admitted that the
classical language – which was difficult to write and to learn, and for
thousands of years incapable of being spoken or verbally understood – was
not suited for the education of children and the masses. … All the school
texts, from the primary grades to the university, were written in this dead
language; and teaching in the primary schools consisted chiefly in reading
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
and memorizing the texts which had to
be explained, word for word, in the local
dialects of the pupils. When European
literature began to be translated into
Chinese, the translations were all in this
classical language; and it was a
tremendous task and exceedingly
amusing to read the comic figures in the
novels of Charles Dickens talking in the
dead language of two thousand years
ago! …
In the course of a few years, the literary
revolution had succeeded in giving to the
people a national language, and had
brought about a new age of literary
expression. The political parties soon
saw the utility of this new linguistic
instrument, and adopted it for their
Chen Duxiu (left) and Hu Shi
weeklies and monthlies. The publishing
houses, which at first hesitated to
accept books written in the vulgar language, soon found them to sell far
better than those in the classical style, and became enthusiastic over the
new movement. Many new small book companies sprang up and published
nothing but books and periodicals written in the national language. By 1919
and 1920 the vulgar tongue of the people had assumed the more
respectable name of the “National Language of China.” And in 1920 the
Ministry of Education – in a reactionary government – reluctantly
proclaimed an order that, from the fall of the next year, the textbooks for the
first two grades in the primary schools were to be written in the national
language. In 1922 all the elementary and secondary textbooks were
ordered to be rewritten in the national language.
Source: Hu Shi, a professor at Beijing University and an intellectual leader during the
May Fourth Movement. This account was written in the early 1930s.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Document F: An assessment of the May Fourth Movement (Original)
The May 4th Movement was at once a patriotic political movement and a
new cultural movement. The former began from May 4 to June 28 [1919],
the latter from September 1915, when Chen Duxiu published the first issue
of New Youth magazine, to July, 1921, when the Chinese Communist Party
was founded … the rising patriotism also pushed forward the cultural
movement, transforming it from a cultural movement characteristic of old
democracy into one characteristic of new democracy with the dissemination
of Marxism as its main current.
The May 4th Movement gave the Chinese people a new awakening. …
philosophic theories of the West poured into China and became
widespread … one year after the May 4th Movement over 400 new
publications came out. … New mass organizations were set up by the
hundreds. Both organizations and publications took up the tasks of
popularizing new ideologies and researching the issues of reforming
society, forming a widespread and vigorous ideological trend. … Among
them the most widespread and popular were Marxism, pragmatism, guild
socialism, new village and workstudy mutual help doctrines, as well as
anarchism.
Source: Historian Bai Shouyi, writing in An Outline History of China, published in 2008
by the Foreign Language Press in Beijing (p. 480-481).
Document G: An assessment of the May Fourth Movement (Original)
… the May Fourth Movement was essentially a socio-political-intellectual
revolution aimed at achieving national independence, individual
emancipation, and creation of a new culture through a critical and scientific
re-evaluation of the national heritage and selected acceptance of foreign
civilization. …
… three main achievements are indisputable. First, the literary revolution
led to the establishment of the Plain Language in 1920 and the rise of a
new literature in vernacular style …
Second, the influx of diverse foreign ideas and ideologies caused the
emergence of two opposing views on social reconstruction and national
regeneration: the pragmatic, evolutionary method expounded by Hu Shi
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
and later partially accepted by the Nationalist Party; and the Marxist
revolutionary approach adopted by the Chinese Communist Party. The
contemporary history of China from 1921 onward is primarily a story of the
struggle between these two parties and their different approaches.
Third, the intensification of nationalism stimulated the rise of a Young
China, extremely sensitive to its perilous position in the modern world and
jealous of guiding its own destiny. … The result was a violent reaction
against foreign imperialism and an intense drive to end the unequal
treaties.
Source: Historian Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, writing in The Rise of Modern China (6th ed.),
published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (p. 511). Photo: The art and images of
China, www.ibiblio.org/chineseart.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Sources
Bai, Shouyi. (2008). An Outline History of China. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Document F: Pages 480-481.
Chen, Duxiu. (1982). Call to Youth. In Ssu-yü Teng and John K. Fairbank (Eds.).
China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press. Originally published in 1915.
Document C: Pages 240-245.
Chen, Duxiu. (1996). On literary revolution. In Kirk A Denton (Ed.). Modern Chinese
Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press. Pages 140-145. Originally published February 1917.
Document D: Page 141.
Hsü, Immanuel C. Y. (2000). The Rise of Modern China (6th ed.). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Document G: Page 511.
Hu, Shi. (1934). The Chinese Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Downloaded May 25, 2011, from
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~mrl/HuShih/ChineseRenaissance.html
Document E.
Teng Ying-ch’ao [Deng, Yingchao]. (1978). My Experience with the May Fourth
Movement. In Dun J. Li (Ed. and Trans.). Modern China: From Mandarin to
Commissar. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Pages 153-162. Originally
published in 1949.
Document B: Pages 153-160.
This Month in History. (2010). China Today, 59(5), 6. Retrieved from Academic Search
Complete, May 24, 2011.
Document A
Wertz, Richard R. (n.d.) Chen Duxiu. The art and images of China. Retrieved June 18,
2011, from
http://www.ibiblio.org/chineseart/contents/peop/c05s01p01.htm?image=1
Photograph in Document E
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
Background notes for teachers on the May Fourth Movement
Although the May Fourth Movement has not featured prominently in traditional high
school surveys of Chinese history in the United States, it receives considerable
attention from Chinese historians. The movement shaped the historical context for the
founding of the Communist Party in 1921, and one of the party founders, Chen Duxiu
(Documents C and D), was prominent in the intellectual leadership of the May Fourth
Movement. Thus students in China today are taught that the movement “marked the
beginning of China’s new democratic revolution” (“Teaching objectives of China’s
modern and contemporary history basic knowledge”). Historian Immanuel C. Y. Hsü
clarifies the terminology related to the movement:
This intellectual revolution, taking place somewhere between 1917 and 1923,
hailed a New Cultural Movement which has sometimes been described, perhaps
exaggeratedly, as a “Chinese Renaissance.” A high point in this turbulent period
was the gigantic student demonstration in Peking [Beijing] on May 4, 1919, which
quickly evoked nationwide response. Hence this period is also commonly known
as that of the May Fourth Movement (Hsü, 2000, p. 494)
Hsü identifies four conditions that contributed to the emergence of the movement
at this point in history:
 The end of dynastic rule created new space for consideration of reforms beyond
the transformation of government institutions while the failure of the 1911
Revolution to establish constitutional democracy encouraged intellectuals to seek
deeper solutions in China’s effort to modernize.
 European and American preoccupation with World War I mitigated their
interventions in China and provided the domestic Chinese economy with
opportunities for growth. This economic growth “gave rise to new merchant and
labor classes, which … were sensitive to China’s predicament under imperialism”
(Hsü, 2000, p. 495).
 World War I, on the other hand, emboldened Japanese aggression against
China, which intensified nationalist sentiment within China.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
 The number of Chinese students studying abroad reached a critical mass. They
returned home with a greater understanding of western culture and history than
any previous generation of Chinese intellectuals.
Among the returned students, Hsü identifies three whose leadership in the May
Fourth Movement was especially important. Chen Duxiu (Documents C and D) founded
the influential New Youth magazine in 1915 before adopting Marxism and becoming a
founder of the Chinese Communist Party. Cai Yuanpei became chancellor of Beijing
University (a legacy of the 1898 Hundred Day Reforms) in 1916. Hsü says, “Under Cai’s
guidance, the Beida became an exciting institution of higher learning, with professors of
different political persuasions – liberals, radicals, socialists, anarchists, conservatives,
and reactionaries – composing the faculty” (Hsü, 2000, p. 499). It was during this time
that the young Mao Zedong worked in the university library. Hu Shi (Documents E) was
among the new faculty at Beijing University. He had spent seven years studying in the
United States, where John Dewey was a strong influence. “Under his aegis, ‘Mr.
Science’ and ‘Mr. Democracy’ became the catchwords of the age,” according to Hsü
(2000, p. 500).
The spark that converted intellectual fervor into a national movement was the
decision on April 28, 1919, at the Versailles conference to award Germany’s
concessions in China to Japan.
On May 4, several hundred returned students met [at Beijing University] to
discuss what they could do in this period of national crisis and humiliation. … It
was … resolved to stage a mass demonstration and to present petitions to the
foreign legations for transmittal to Paris. The demonstration was joined by large
groups of students from the thirteen universities and colleges in Beijing, swelling
the number to 5,000” (Hsü, 2000, p. 504).
The students burned the home of the Chinese foreign minister, and later a small
number were arrested. The arrests led to a call for a general student strike, which
spread to other cities and was joined by industrial workers and others all over the
country. The intellectual movement continued for some years, fueled in part John
Dewey’s two-year visit to China (1919-1921) and Bertrand Russell’s nine-month visit
(1920-1921). As noted above, the Chinese Communist Party, founded in 1921, is
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4
among the legacies of the movement. Placing the movement in the larger historical
context of China’s efforts to modernize, Hsü writes:
The intellectual revolution of 1917-23 represents China’s third stage of response
to the Western impact. The first stage – the Self-strengthening Movement from
1861 to 1895 – saw superficial attempts at diplomatic and military modernization,
and the second – the era of reform and revolution from 1898 to 1912 – witnessed
the acceptance of Western political institutions. The intellectual awakening of
1917-23 marked a further shift away from the traditional Chinese base toward
complete Westernization. By 1920 China was very much a part of the modern
world (Hsü, 2000, p. 510).
Source
Hsü, Immanuel C. Y. (2000). The Rise of Modern China (6th ed.). New York: Oxford
University Press.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 4