May Fourth Movement
1919 Chinese protests
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese political and cultural movement sparked by student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919.
Demonstrators opposed the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred German concessions in China to Japan rather than returning them to Chinese sovereignty.
The movement grew into a broader rejection of traditional Confucian values and embrace of science, democracy, and vernacular Chinese literature.
It remains a touchstone in Chinese intellectual history, claimed by both nationalists and communists as foundational to modern China.
- student protestsOrganized dissent by learners
- Paris Peace Conference1919 postwar diplomatic gathering
- ShandongCoastal Chinese province
- Treaty of Versailles1919 settlement ending WWI
- World War IFirst global military conflict
Western influence · Enlightenment · poetry · Marxism · Democracy · Science · realism · cultural awakening · intellectuals · Tiananmen · Peking University · boycott · modernity · revolution · youth · Beijing · reform · awakening
- May Fourth EraPeking University, student protests, anti-traditionalism, cultural criticism, cultural critique
- imperialismempire building, colonization, imperial expansion, British Empire, colonies
- Asian educationConfucian academies, civil service exams, private academies, Peking University, examination halls
- Communist ChinaCommunist Party, People's Republic, Great Leap Forward, Gang of Four, Central Committee
- reformsderegulation, privatising, agrarian reform, market reform, regulatory reform
- Chinese LiteratureAmy Tan, Pearl S. Buck, Pearl Buck, Confucius, Sun Tzu