May 4th Movement
| May Fourth Movement | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 五四運動 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 五四运动 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Wǔsì yùndòng |
| Gwoyeu Romatzyh | Wuusyh yunndonq |
| Wade–Giles | Wu3-ssu4 yün4-tung4 |
| IPA | [ù.sɨ̂ ŷntʊ̂ŋ] |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Ngh-sei wahn-duhng |
| Jyutping | Ng5-sei3 wan6-dung6 |
| Southern Min | |
| Tâi-lô | Ngó-sì ūn-tūng |
The May Fourth Movement (Chinese: 五四運動; pinyin: Wǔsì Yùndòng) was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student participants in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting against the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially allowing Japan to receive territories in Shandong which had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao. These demonstrations sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization and away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base rather than intellectual elites. Many political and social leaders of the next decades emerged at this time.
The term "May Fourth Movement" in a broader sense often refers to the period during 1915-1921 more often called the New Culture Movement.
"The atmosphere and political mood that emerged around 1919," in the words of Mitter (2004), "are at the centre of a set of ideas that has shaped China's momentous twentieth century." Following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Qing Dynasty disintegrated. This marked the end of thousands of years of powerful imperial rule, and theoretically ushered a new era in which political power rested with the people. However, the reality was that China was a fragmented nation dominated by warlords, who were more concerned with their own political powers and private armies than national interests. The Chinese Beiyang government was occupied with suppressing internal affairs and did little to counter the influence exerted by foreign powers. The March 1st movement that happened in Korea (1919), the Russian revolution (1917), defeats by foreign powers and the presence of spheres of influence inflamed a sense of nationalism among the emerging middle class and cultural leaders. Leaders of the New Culture Movement believed that traditional Confucian values were responsible for the political weakness of the nation. Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional values and the selective adoption of Western ideals of "Mr. Science" (Chinese: 賽先生; pinyin: sài xiānsheng) and "Mr. Democracy" (Chinese: 德先生; pinyin: dé xiānsheng) in order to strengthen the new nation. These iconoclastic and anti-traditional views and programs have shaped China's politics and culture down to the present.
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