The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution In Modern China

The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese
anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student
protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen
(The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chinese government's weak response
to the Treaty of Versailles decision to allow Japan to retain territories in
Shandong that had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao in
1914. The demonstrations sparked nation-wide protests and spurred an upsurge in
Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization away from cultural
activities, and a move towards a populist base, away from traditional
intellectual and political elites.

The May Fourth demonstrations marked a turning point in a
broader anti-traditional New Culture Movement (1915–1921) that sought to
replace traditional Confucian values and was itself a continuation of late Qing
reforms. Yet even after 1919, these educated "new youths" still
defined their role with a traditional model in which the educated elite took
responsibility for both cultural and political affairs. They opposed
traditional culture but looked abroad for cosmopolitan inspiration in the name
of nationalism and were an overwhelmingly urban movement that espoused populism
in an overwhelmingly rural country. Many political and social leaders of the
next five decades emerged at this time, including those of the Chinese
Communist Party.

[source: Wikipedia]