Chinas Struggle with the Modern World A Bitter

China’s Struggle with the Modern World A Bitter Revolution

The Making of a New China Description of the May Fourth Incident Youth Internationalism Violence

Why Was May Fourth Important? � The May Fourth Incident in Communist Historiography – Dominant Narrative – Reaction against Confucianism Chow Tse-tsung’s The May Fourth Movement - 1960 The May Fourth Movement was actually a combined intellectual and socio-political movement to achieve national independence, the emancipation of the individual, and a just society by the modernization of China. Lin Yu-sheng’s The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness – 1979 – Uncompromising moralism originated in Confucianism. Vera Schwarcz’s The Chinese Enlightenment 1986 – Tensions between radicals and a younger generations willing to adapt rather than reject China’s past and save the present Rana Mitter – A Bitter Revolution - the possibilities of urban ideas - 2004

The Fall of the Chinese Empire �Qing Empire – 1644 -1911 Dismissed British – 1793 Opium War – 1839 -1842 – Ended with humiliating treaty of Nanjing Taiping Rebellion – 1856 -1864 – Hong Xiuquan Sino-Japanese War – 1894 -1895 One hundred days of reform – 1898 – Guangxu Emperor Boxer Uprising – 1900 New Government (Xinzheng) - 1902

Uneasy Birth: The Chinese Republic � Chinese Republic Overthrow of Puyi – the last emperor -1911 Nationalist led by Sun Yatsen overthrown by Yuan Shikai – 1912 Twenty-One demands – 1915 Yuan Shikai dies and nation is divided among warlords – 1916 Treaty of Versailles and May 4 th Movement Incident – 1919 Communists and Nationalists unite forces – 1923 Massacre of Chinese Communists in Shanghai – 1927 Chiang Kaishek founds national government in Nanking 1928

Beijing, Shanghai, and the May Fourth Generation �The world the Great War had made was part of China’s Republican experience, for Chinese as well as foreigners. From the White Russians in exile in Shanghai from the Soviet government brought to power by the collapse of the Czarist empire to the associations of Chinese labor veterans of the European front, the world of war came to China just as China had to the war. The May Fourth era itself was part of that changed world. It was in China’s cities where the new thinking developed, and in particular in Beijing and Shanghai.

Beijing: Intellectual Centre of the Movement “Few cities in China in the 1920 s looked so traditional and Chinese and at the same time harboured the essentials of modern and Western urban life” David Strand Liberal atmosphere of Beijing University allowed intellectual life to flourish Casual attitude and free love Xiong (ferocious), Song (slack-off), and Kong (empty)

Shanghai: China’s Modern Challenge �Politically tolerant environment �“Shanghai’s a big place, not like where we come from. Lots of people with plenty of money. It’ll be easy making a living there. ” – Ding Ling �May Thirtieth Movement – 1925 – Imperialism �Racism �Cosmopolitanism �Shanghai University – radical – St. John’s University – local elite

People: The May Fourth Generation �Zou Taofen (1895 -1944) http: //app 1. chinadaily. com. cn/star/2003/0130 /cu 18 -2. html �Lu Xun (1881 -1936) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Lu_Xun �Ding Ling (1905 -1986) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Ding_Ling �Du Zhongyuan (1898 -1944) http: //www. stx. ox. ac. uk/about/publications/r ecord/21/college_seminar_rana_mitter

Subcultures � Leftist Radicals Chen Duxiu http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Chen_Duxiu Li Dazhao http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Li_Dazhao Mao Zedong http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Mao_Zedong Hu Shi http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Hu_Shi � Writers of Fiction Lu Xun http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Lu_Xun Ding Ling http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Ding_Ling Xu Zhimo http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Xu_Zhimo Guo Morou http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Guo_moruo Mao Dun http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Mao_Dun