May Fourth Movement

Introduction

The May Fourth Movement of 1919 was a nationalist mass movement, considered by many as one of the most important events in Chinese history. During the May Fourth era (1915–1925), Chinese intellectuals waged the New Culture Movement, questioning the relevance and validity of the Confucian tradition while searching for new ideas from abroad. Marxism and Communism—together with liberalism, anarchism, pragmatism, Bergsonism, etc.—entered China. Thanks to the direct assistance of the Communist International, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921. Several decades later, the Party founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Given its multifarious and multileveled significance, the May Fourth Movement sparked interest among scholars of different politico-cultural backgrounds, almost immediately from its occurrence into the early 21st century. As such, it has generated a large body of literature, with divergent views, positions, and opinions. From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, most scholars evaluated the May Fourth Movement positively, hailing it as a new age in Chinese history. This evaluation has still been held by PRC scholars who emphasize how the May Fourth Movement helped promote Communism in the country. For a long time, the May Fourth Movement was (and still is in some texts) considered a watershed moment among PRC educators by which they divided the course of Chinese history in modern times into two subperiods: “modern history” or jindaishi 近代史 (1840–1919) and “contemporary history” or xiandaishi 现代史 (1919–present). By comparison, non-Marxist scholars appeared slightly less enthusiastic about the historical role of the movement, although many of them still recognized its importance in reshaping the Chinese attitude toward their tradition. By downplaying the May Fourth’s connection with Communism, non-Marxist scholars focused on how the New Culture Movement helped advance Chinese modernity in that era. In more recent years, thanks to the rising interest in sociocultural history, some historians working in Western academies attempt to question—or “decenter”—the May Fourth’s epochal importance in presaging the development of modern Chinese history. In the Chinese-speaking world, scholars have made similar attempts to explore the social impacts of the May Fourth Movement. However, few have shed doubts about its historical significance. The literature on the May Fourth Movement is still expanding at a rapid pace, thanks to the number of works generated at many conferences, symposiums, and workshops held on major anniversaries of the May Fourth Movement across the Taiwan Strait.

General Overviews

A number of studies have been published in English, Chinese, and Japanese on the May Fourth Movement. In the English-speaking world, Chow 1960 remains a useful introduction. With a balanced approach, it is comprehensive, well organized, and narrated. As its title indicates, the author fully recognizes the importance of the May Fourth Movement in helping to create a new culture in modern China. Lin 1979 offers the first modification of the iconoclastic spirit supposedly enveloping the May Fourth era. The author instead argues that, although iconoclastic on first look, the New Culture characterizing the age had methodological and cultural elements from China’s past. Schwarcz 1986 discusses the dual task of the May Fourth intellectuals—cultural enlightenment and national salvation—and recognizes the accomplishments of the May Fourth intellectuals while at the same time registers their frustrations and failures. Mitter 2004 also recognizes the historical significance of the movement. Indeed, the author considers it the beginning of Chinese modernity and, from a comparative perspective, examines how this modernization project, politically, culturally, and socially, characterized the history of 20th-century Chinese history. By contrast, Chow, et al. 2008 challenges the central attention that the May Fourth Movement has received over the past century and contends that many issues discussed in the movement had emerged before and that these issues were far from prevailing in, and being characteristics of, the age. Thus, the authors argues the need to decenter the movement when studying the development of modern Chinese history. Chinese publications on the May Fourth Movement are numerous. Hua 1954 was an early attempt to emphasize and establish the May Fourth’s connection with the Communist movement. Peng 1998, which has had several earlier editions, more or less follows the same route, only with a much broader coverage. Less ideological, Ding and Ma 1999 is useful in offering many valuable historical photos and images. Zhang 2009 is a new synthesis of Chinese scholarship on the May Fourth Movement. It fails, however, to incorporate studies on the subject by overseas scholars. Led by Hazama Naoki of Kyoto University, Japanese scholars launched the “Studies of the May Fourth Movement,” resulting in a series of publications from the 1970s to the 1990s. Some works (Kataoka 1982 cited under In Cities and Countries outside Beijing, and others) deal directly with the movement, whereas others (Mori 1982, cited under History) cover related subjects in the May Fourth era.

Chow, Kai-wing, Tze-ki Hon, Hung-yok Ip, and Don C. Price, eds. Beyond the May Fourth Paradigm: In Search of Chinese Modernity. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2008.
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An anthology derived from the papers delivered at two symposiums, this book makes a passionate as well as a polemical call for scholars to look beyond the May Fourth Movement in studying modern Chinese history. Refuting the long-held belief that the movement amounted to an epochal event, the book urges readers to reconsider its supposed importance in shaping the course of history.
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Chow, Tse-tsung. The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
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Although published many decades ago, this overview of the May Fourth Movement remains a useful study in English. It defines the movement both as a political event and an “intellectual revolution” and organizes its content accordingly in two parts. Its thesis remains influential, although later scholars have critiqued the author’s high opinion of the New Culture supposedly created in the era.
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Ding Shouhe 丁守和, and Ma Yong 马勇, eds. Wusi tushi 五四图史. Shenyang, China: Liaohai chubanshe, 1999.
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English title: The May Fourth: An Illustrated History. In nine chapters, this book contains historical photos and images in the May Fourth era, accompanied with captions and textual explanations.
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Hua Gang 华岗. Wusi yundongshi 五四运动史. Shanghai: Huadong renmin chubanshe, 1954.
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One of the earliest attempts by the Chinese communists to interpret the May Fourth Movement from their ideology. Although only 168 pages long in its revised edition, it was a seminal text in that it argued that the May Fourth Movement was led by Li Dazhao and other Communist leaders, rather than by Hu Shi and other bourgeois intellectuals.
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Lin, Yü-sheng. Crisis of Chinese Consciousness: Radical Antitraditionalism in the May Fourth Era. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.
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An important book in modifying the accepted thesis about the May Fourth Movement as a new era of Chinese cultural development. By studying Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Lu Xun, three unquestionable leaders in the movement, Lin argues that their harsh criticism of Chinese tradition, and Confucianism in particular, was paradoxically a reflection of the traditional way of Chinese thinking.
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Mitter, Rana. A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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From a global perspective, this book amounts to a recent and meaningful attempt to mark the May Fourth Movement as the beginning of a new era in Chinese history. Through his engaging narrative, the author analyzes how the movement became a historic endeavor by the modern Chinese to reshape, with successes and failures, the development of their country’s history throughout the 20th century.
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Peng Ming 彭明. Wusi yundongshi 五四运动史. Rev. ed. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1998.
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English title: A History of the May Fourth Movement. Peng is well regarded as an authority on the May Fourth Movement in the PRC. With twenty chapters, the book is a comprehensive study of the movement and the entire May Fourth era. It describes, in a triumphant overtone, its development in two phases, first focusing on the movement’s connection with the rise of Communism, utopian socialism, anarchism, and women’s liberation and then its repercussions and developments in other cities.
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Schwarcz, Vera. The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
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A study of the May Fourth intellectuals, both the teachers and the students, with a focus on their roles in China’s modernization. The author thinks that, as a nationalist movement, the May Fourth Movement introduced modernity into China; hence, it was an Enlightenment in Chinese history. However, the movement was also incomplete in that the task of national salvation, in the wake of Japan’s occupation of Manchuria, overwhelmed the need for cultural renewal.
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Zhang Dewang 张德旺. Xinbian wusi yundongshi 新编五四运动史. Harbin, China: Heilongjiang renmin chubanshe, 2009.
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A synthesis of new Chinese scholarship (only PRC) on the subject, with an introduction that discusses the historiography of the May Fourth Movement. The book is comprehensive in coverage, dealing not only with how the movement started in Beijing but also how it spread to other cities. It also discusses the historiography of the May Fourth Movement in its introduction. It discusses various schools of thoughts in the era, not only Marxism but also Western thoughts and the anti-New Culture school in publications, such as the Critical Review.
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Guides to Sources

Given its significance, primary sources—especially memoirs, recollections, and newspaper reports—on the May Fourth Movement have been widely collected and edited into several volumes over the period. Chow 1963 is an early example, though obviously a bit outdated. Guojia tushuguan 2009 is a recent and convenient addition that provides a comprehensive bibliographic survey of the books published on the movement in many languages. As for primary and archival sources of the movement, collections at the Hu Shi jinian guan and Fu Sinian tushuguan in Taipei, Taiwan, and Beijing daxue dang’an guan and Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo in Beijing are places to visit, although access to their collections often requires authorization.

Beijing daxue dang’an guan 北京大学档案馆.
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As a birthplace of the May Fourth Movement, useful documents about the leaders and participants are preserved at the archives of Peking University inside its campus. Public access, however, is limited and requires authorization.
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Chow, Tse-tsung. Research Guide to the May Fourth Movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
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A useful bibliographic guide, with brief annotation, to the periodicals appearing in the era, or between 1915 and 1925. It also contains bibliographic information on the relevant works (articles and books) published in Chinese, Japanese, and Western languages during the movement and thereafter, before its publication in 1963.
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Fu Sinian tushu guan 傅斯年圖書館.
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Named after Fu Sinian (or Fu Ssu-nien in the Wade-Giles system), this is the library of the Institute of History and Philology, Taipei, Taiwan. The Institute was founded by Fu in 1928 on the mainland and moved to Taiwan in 1949. The library has Fu’s book collections, papers, and correspondences.
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Guojia tushuguan 國家圖書館. Wusi yundong lunzhu chugao 五四運動論著初稿. Taipei: Guojia tushuguan, 2009.
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Began with four research essays as introduction, this useful bibliographic study contains a comprehensive list of books on the May Fourth Movement. It organizes the books in eleven categories: Sun Yat-sen, book reviews and methods, philosophy and religion, science and technology, education and rites and customs, society and culture, politics and law, history and diplomacy, biographies and memoirs, language, and literature.
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Hu Shi jinian guan 胡適紀念館.
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Housed and administered at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, the Hu Shih Memorial Hall—located in Hu Shi’s own residence in Taiwan (1958–1962)—contains his own library, papers, and correspondences in both paper and digital forms. In addition, Hu Shi’s tomb is located on a hill across the Institute in a short walking distance. The archives are available online.
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Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中国社会科学院近代史研究所.
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The Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in Beijing has preserved archival sources by and about many figures in the May Fourth Movement. These archives, however, are not open to the public. Over the years, the researchers at the Institute have edited and published many of the sources, which are discussed in the next section.
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Collection of Primary Sources

In addition to the primary source collections mentioned above, efforts have been made by scholars in both mainland China and Taiwan to compile, edit, and publish the material in different categories through the years. Chen 1979, Yang 2011, Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi quanguo weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui 1999 and Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 1979 are publications of selected memoirs, whereas Zhang 1979, Zhonggong zhongyang Makesi En’gesi Liening Sidalin zhuzuo bianyiju yanjiushi 1958–1959, and Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 1979 are of the various kinds of publications appearing in the May Fourth era. Chou 1995 and Zhonghua quanguo funü lianhehui funü yundongshi yanjiushi 1981 are more specific publications of primary sources—the former consists of Hu Shi’s English works, and the latter contains writings about women in the period.

Chen Shaoting 陳少廷, ed. Wusi yundong de huiyi 五四運動的回憶. Taipei: Baijie chubanshe, 1979.
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A small collection of memoirs by some May Fourth luminaries and participants. It also includes studies of the May Fourth Movement by scholars in the Republic of China.
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Chou, Chih-p’ing, ed. A Collection of Hu Shih’s English Writings. 3 vols. Taipei: Youlanliu chuban gongsi, 1995.
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A convenient and concise collection of the English writings of Hu Shi, a leader of the May Fourth Movement and advocate of liberalism and literary reform in 20th-century China.
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Yang Hu 杨琥, ed. Minguo shiqi mingren tan wusi 民国时期名人谈五四. Fuzhou, China: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2011.
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Recollections of the May Fourth Movement by its participants and contemporaries, which are placed under several categories, such as the May Fourth as an event, as a New Culture Movement, as a nationalist revolution, as a cultural renaissance, as well as the May Fourth’s impact on the nationalist revolution, youth festival and arts festival, and science and democracy.
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Zhang Yunhou 张允侯. Wushi shiqi de shetuan 五四时期的社团. Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1979.
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A useful introduction to a variety of student groups, associations on Peking University and other college campuses, and organized groups elsewhere in the May Fourth period.
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Zhonggong zhongyang Makesi En’gesi Liening Sidalin zhuzuo bianyiju yanjiushi 中共中央馬克思恩格斯列宁斯大林著作編譯局硏究室. Wusi shiqi qikan jieshao 五四时期期刊介紹. 3 vols. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1958–1959.
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A general collection of the periodicals published during the May Fourth period, with details, excerpts, and a brief introduction.
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Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi quanguo weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui 中国人民政治协商会议全国委员会文史资料委员会. Wusi yundong qinliji五四运动亲历记. Beijing: Zhongguo wenshi chubanshe, 1999.
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Recollections of various people—diplomats, professors, students, and others—who either participated in or witnessed the movement.
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Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中国社会科学院近代史研究所. Wusi aiguo yundong五四爱国运动. 2 vols. Beijing: Zhonguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1979.
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A comprehensive collection of journals, photos, and other primary sources, as well as eyewitness reports, with a focus on the movement as a nationalist mass movement and its connection with the rise of Communism in the country.
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Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中国社会科学院近代史研究所. Wusi yundong huiyilu五四运动回忆录. 2 vols. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1979.
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A variety of memoirs by participants and witnesses, including some Communist leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yi, and others. Some of the memoirs were published or excerpted from published sources, whereas others were unpublished interviews.
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Zhonghua quanguo funü lianhehui funü yundongshi yanjiushi 中华全国妇女联合会妇女运动史研究室. Wusi shiqi funü wenti wenxuan 五四时期妇女问题文选. Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1981.
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A selection of the publications on Chinese women that discuss the status of Chinese women in imperial China, how to liberate women in modern times, and how women’s issues became part and parcel of Chinese modernity.
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History

Included here is a selection of various works that study the May Fourth Movement as a historical event: the events that occurred around the time when the movement broke out and the influence that the movement had on historical development. Chen 2011, Saitō 1992, and Zhang and Zhang 1989 are examples of the former, whereas Mori 1982, Maruyama 1969, Ouyang 2009, and Ouyang 2012 are of the latter.

Chen, Pingyuan. Touches of History: An Entry into “May Fourth” China. Translated by Michel Hockx, et al. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011.
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Originally published in Chinese, this book examines several issues in the history and historiography of the May Fourth Movement. It includes the discrepancy between how the movement happened at the time and how it was remembered in history, the changes in late Qing literature and its relation with the literary and linguistic reform in the May Fourth era, and the formation of modern academic institutions and education.
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Maruyama Matsuyuki 丸山松幸. Goshi undō: Sono shisōshi 五四運動: その思想史. Tokyo: Kinokuniya Shoten, 1969.
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A typical study of intellectual history of the May Fourth Movement by a noted historian in Japan. The author offers his insights on the cultural legacy of the movement in modern China, although his research is a bit outdated. It remains useful to see how the movement was being perceived and studied in Japanese academia.
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Mori Tokihiko 森時彥. Goshi jiki no minzoku bōsekigyō 五四時期の民族紡績業. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1982.
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A study of how the textile industry emerged in China during the May Fourth era and how it was impacted by the movement.
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Ouyang Junxi 欧阳军喜. Lishi yu sixiang: Zhongguo xiandaishi shangde wusi yundong 历史与思想：中国现代史上的五四运动. Fuzhou, China: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2009.
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Three parts. The first studies the history of the May Fourth Movement, the second analyzes the ideas that emerged in the May Fourth era, and the third discusses how the May Fourth Movement was remembered and commemorated in later periods.
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Ouyang Zhesheng 欧阳哲生. Wusi yundong de lishi quanshi 五四运动的历史诠释. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2012.
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Based on newly found primary sources, the author studies the May Fourth Movement as a historical event, free of any ideological prisms. It covers such topics as the New Culture Movement and its relationship to traditional culture, the publication and influence of the New Youth journal, and the ideas of Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, etc.
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Saitō Michihiko 斎藤道彦. 5.4 undō no kyozō to jitsuzō: 1919-nen 5-gatsu 4-nichi, Pekin 五・四運動の虚像と実像: 一九一九年五月四日北京. Tokyo: Chūō Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1992.
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An interesting study that attempts to return readers to the day when the May Fourth Movement actually occurred and how it came about. It recreated the real circumstances in which the actions were taken by the students and described how these actions were received in the city.
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Zhang Yunhou 张允侯, and Zhang Youkun 张友坤. Zai wusi yundong baofa de yinianli 在五四运动爆发的一年里. Wuhan, China: Wuhan chubanshe, 1989.
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A chronology, down to months and days, that records events that happened from January 1, 1919, to December 31, 1919.
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Conferences, Symposiums, and Essay Collections

Since the 1950s, if not earlier, conferences and symposiums have been held on the major anniversaries (sixtieth, seventieth, eightieth, and ninetieth, etc.) of the May Fourth Movement. The papers presented at those meetings were often published in anthologies. Schwartz 1972 and Wang 1979 are two early examples. Yu, et al. 1999 and Dolezelova-Velingerova 2001 are more recent collections that offer a new perspective on the movement’s role in history. Wang 2010 offers a selected sample of new research on the movement in the Chinese-speaking world in recent years.

Dolezelova-Velingerova, Milena, ed. The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China’s May Fourth Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
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A relatively recent anthology of essays on the influence of the May Fourth Movement in developing modern Chinese literature. Although the eight contributors have divergent opinions, they more or less agree that the movement was neither an unprecedented attempt in modernizing Chinese culture nor a real breakthrough in completing the task to which it was assigned by its participants.
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Schwartz, Benjamin I., ed. Reflections on the May Fourth Movement: A Symposium. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
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This is an anthology of the papers presented at Harvard on the fifth anniversary of the May Fourth Movement in 1969. Deeming the movement a “milestone in the growth of nationalism” in China, the six papers collected, in addition to the editor’s extensive introduction, in the volume examine its significance from many perspectives—literary, political, historical, linguistic, cultural, and international.
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Wang, Q. Edward, ed. “The May Fourth Movement: Ninety Years After.” Chinese Studies in History 43.4 (Summer 2010).
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Containing four articles and one interview to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the movement. The articles deal with the “national studies” program at Chinese universities, the women’s question, John Dewey’s visit, and a literature review of the May Fourth study in the PRC. The interview is by Geng Yunzhi, discussing his pioneering research on Hu Shi in post–Mao China.
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Wang Rongzu (Wong Young-tsu) 汪榮祖, ed. Wusi yanjiu lunwenji 五四研究論文集. Taipei: Lianjing, 1979.
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An anthology collecting essays by scholars in Taiwan and the United States on the movement, covering a wide array of topics—political background, immediate causes, student movement, labor movement, Japan, Chinese tradition, Dewey, and May Fourth in Taiwan. Also includes a part that deals with several intellectual figures in the May Fourth era.
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Yu Yingshi (Yu Ying-shih) 余英時, et al. Wusi xinlun: Jifei wenyi fuxing, yifei qimeng yundong 五四新論：既非文藝復興, 亦非啟蒙運動. Taipei: Lianjing chuban gongsi, 1999.
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An anthology of essays written or delivered by Yu Ying-shih, Chang Hao, Wang Yuanhua, Lin Yu-sheng, Wang Fan-sen, Ouyang Zhesheng, Liu Junning, and Qin Hui on the eightieth anniversary of the May Fourth Movement in 1999. Together these essays hope to reevaluate the movement and its impact on modern Chinese history.
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Communism

Whether the May Fourth Movement was germane to the rise of Communist movement in China has yielded divergent opinions. However, there is no denial that some known leaders and participants in the movement later became Communists. Kuo 1975 and Feigon 1983 were monographs on Chen Duxiu, a May Fourth luminary and founder of the Communist Party. Meisner 1962 and Kinoshita 2000 are studies of Li Dazhao, another May Fourth leader who introduced Marxism and Bolshevikism into China. Chen 2007 focuses on Guo Moruo, a member of the student generation in the May Fourth period, and examines how Guo’s turn to Communist ideology was influenced by traditional culture.

Chen, Xiaoming. From the May Fourth Movement to Communist Revolution: Guo Moruo and the Chinese Path to Communism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
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Focusing on Guo Moruo, a leading Marxist historian, this book explores the intrinsic connection between tradition and anti-tradition in the May Fourth era. It argues that what turned May Fourth intellectuals to Communism was not only because of the iconoclasm characterizing the era, but also because of certain elements from the past, such as the “Confucian cosmopolitan perspective.”
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Feigon, Lee. Chen Duxiu, Founder of the Chinese Communist Party. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
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A biography of Chen Duxiu, one of the main figures leading the May Fourth Movement, centering on how Chen radicalized to become a Communist. As the editor of the New Youth and dean of the College of the Arts at Peking University, Chen caught the attention of the Communist International. After the Chinese Communist Party was founded, Chen was elected in absentia as its first general secretary.
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Kinoshita Eiji 水下英司. Chūgoku Marukusu shugi no genzō: Ri Daishō no taiyōronteki Marukusu shugi 中国マルクス主義の原像: 李大釗の体用論的マルクス主義. Tokyo: Shinsensha, 2000.
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A study of how Marxism entered China and how Li Dazhao perceived it. The author argues that Li’s approach to Marxism was influenced by the substance vs. function idea prevailing in the late Qing period.
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Kuo, Thomas C. Chen Tu-Hsiu (1879–1942) and the Chinese Communist Movement. South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University Press, 1975.
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A concise study of the role Chen Duxiu played in helping to found the Chinese Communist Party and launch the Communist movement in modern China.
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Meisner, Maurice. Li Ta-chao and the Origins of Chinese Marxism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.
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A detailed study of Li Dazhao (Ta-chao) who was a professor and librarian at Peking University during the May Fourth era. One of the earliest Chinese converts of Marxism and Communism, Li organized a study group of Marxism on the Peking University campus and helped train the first generation of Chinese Communists.
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Hu Shi

A major intellectual figure, Hu Shi 胡適 garnered his reputation mostly in the May Fourth era. Biographic studies (chronicle and intellectual) have appeared in Chinese and English ever since Hu passed away in 1962 and have continued to grow, especially in post–Mao China. Chou 1984 and Jiang 2011 are biographies of Hu, whereas Geng 1985, Liu 1994, and Ouyang 2012 discuss Hu’s position in Chinese intellectual history. Grieder 1970, Ouyang 2003, Stafutti 1990, and Egan and Chou 2009 focus on one specific aspect of Hu’s ideas, career, and life.

Chou, Min-chih. Hu Shih and Intellectual Choice in Modern China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984.
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A biography of Hu Shi (Hu Shih), a champion of Western liberalism in the May Fourth era. Basing the study on Hu’s diary and other primary sources, the author centers on Hu’s early life: how he was educated in China and received his college and postgraduate education in the United States. It is a bit outdated in that more sources about and by Hu Shi have come out in recent years.
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Egan, Susan Chan, and Chih-p’ing Chou. A Pragmatist and His Free Spirit: The Half-Century Romance of Hu Shi & Edith Clifford Williams. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2009.
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A well-written book about the romantic relationship between Hu Shi and Edith Clifford Williams, a free-spirited artist. The two became friends in the early 1910s in Ithaca (NY) when Hu was an undergraduate at Cornell University, and their romance continued into their later lives.
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Geng Yunzhi 耿云志. Hu Shi yanjiu lungao 胡适研究论稿. Chengdu, China: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1985.
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Regarded as a pioneer in the study of Hu Shi in post–Mao China, the author collected his essays on Hu Shi written from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. This collection was important not so much because of its research, but because it sparked interest in Hu Shi, once a chastised figure in the Mao period, among Chinese scholars from the 1980s into the early 21st century.
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Grieder, Jerome. Hu Shih and the Chinese Renaissance: Liberalism in the Chinese Revolution, 1917–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
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An intellectual biography of Hu Shih (Hu Shi), with a focus on his advocacy of Western liberal ideas in China. Written in the Cold War era, the author examines the causes for the failure of liberalism, or Western-style democracy, in China. He contends that Hu Shih’s perception and practice of liberalism had inherent problems, one being that it lacked a concrete method to relate to the common people.
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Jiang Yongzhen (Chiang Yung-chen) 江勇振. Shi wo qi shei: Hu Shi 捨我其誰：胡適. Taipei: Lianjing chuban gongsi, 2011.
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This is the first volume (over 700 pages) of a biographic trilogy of Hu Shi, a liberal leader of the May Fourth Movement. Based on his extensive archival research in recent years, the author hopes to pen a definitive biography of Hu, about not only his celebrated scholarly career but also his private life.
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Liu Qingfeng 劉青峰. Hu Shi yu xiandai Zhongguo wenhua zhuanxing 胡適與現代中國文化轉型. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1994.
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A detailed discussion how Hu Shi’s advocacy of pragmatism and scientism and his own studies across history, philosophy, and literature reoriented the development of modern Chinese culture.
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Ouyang Zhesheng 欧阳哲生. Ziyou zhuyi zhi lei: Hu Shi sixiang zhi xiandai chanshi 自由主义之累：胡适思想之现代阐释. Rev. ed. Nanchang, China: Jiangxi jiaoyu chubanshe, 2003.
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The author has established himself as an expert on Hu Shi, and modern Chinese intellectual culture in general, in the post–Mao era. This is one of his many studies of Hu Shi and his cohorts. He offers a detailed analysis of how Hu Shi understood liberalism and practiced it in the time of chaos and revolution. Originally published in 1993.
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Ouyang Zhesheng 欧阳哲生. Tanxun Hu Shi de jingshen shijie 探寻胡适的精神世界. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2012.
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This is the author’s new study of Hu Shi. It covers a variety of aspects of Hu Shi and his influence in modern China, such as his relationship with Academia Sinica, the research institution in China and Taiwan (after 1949), his attitude toward traditional culture, and his ideas of Western culture.
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Stafutti, Stefania. Hu Shi e la “questione della lingua”: Le origini della letteratura in baihua nel Baihua wenxue shi (Storia della letteratura in lingua volgare). Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1990.
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A focused study of how Hu Shi’s work, Baihua wenxueshi (A History of Vernacular Literature), helped promote vernacular Chinese in the period.
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New/Modern Culture

Included here are selected studies of the cultural changes occurring in and associated with the May Fourth period. Nomura 1990 and Yang 2009 analyze generally the movement’s impact on Chinese intellectual culture, and Goldman 1977 describes the change in modern literature. Spakowksi 1993 and Wang 2001 discuss the changes in historical ideas and historical writing, whereas Koseki 1985 focuses on modern journalism; Meng 2006, on anarchism; and Yang 2012, on Christianity.

Goldman, Merle, ed. Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.
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A useful and extensive collection of the literary experiment of modern genre/form of Chinese literature.
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Koseki Nobuyuki 小関信行. Goshi jiki no jānarizumu 五四時期のジャナリズム. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985.
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A book about the media coverage and newspaper industry in the May Fourth period and how the movement was reflected and reported.
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Meng Qingsh 孟庆澍. Wuzhengfu zhuyi yu wusi xinwenhua: Weirao Xin Qingnian tongren suozuo de kaocha 无政府主义与五四新文化: 围绕《新青年》同人所作的考察. Zhengzhou, China: Henan daxue chubanshe, 2006.
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After surveying the rise of anarchism in modern China, the book focuses more specifically on the relationship of these May Fourth intellectuals with anarchism: Qian Xuantong, Chen Duxiu, Zhou Zuoren, and Lu Xun.
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Nomura Kōichi 野村浩一. Kindai Chūgoku no shisō sekai: “Shinseinen” no gunzō 近代中国の思想世界: 「新青年」の群像. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990.
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An important study of how the May Fourth intellectuals associated with the New Youth journal influenced the development of modern culture in China.
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Spakowksi, Nicola. Die Autorität der Vergangenheit: Funktionen der chinesischen Geschichtsschreibung am Beispiel der Rezeption Li Dazhaos. Munich: Minerva, 1993.
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Using the example of Li Dazhao’s ideas of history, the book discusses how Chinese historical writing experienced a marked change in the May Fourth era.
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Wang, Q. Edward. Inventing China through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
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Focusing on the historical works of Liang Qichao, Hu Shi, Chen Yinke, and He Bingsong and those of their students (e.g., Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, and Yao Congwu), this book argues that the transformation of Chinese historiography in the era was characterized not only by the rise of scientific and national history but also by the search for comparable elements in the Chinese tradition.
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Yang Jianlong 杨剑龙. “Wusi” xinwenhua yundong yu jidujiao wenhua sichao 五四新文化运动与基督教文化思潮. Shanghai: Shanghai shiji chuban jituan, 2012.
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Comprised of two parts, this book deals with the relationship between the May Fourth New Cultural Movement and Christianity. The first part, with nine chapters, discusses the May Fourth intellectuals’ attitude toward Christianity and the “anti-Christianity” movement in the period. The second part, also with nine chapters, deals more generally with how Christianity and Christian churches fared in the May Fourth era.
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Yang Nianqun 杨念群. “Wusi” jiushi zhounian ji: Yige “wentishi” de huisu yu fansi 五四九十周年记：一个“问题史”的回溯与反思. Beijing: Shejie tushu chuban gongsi, 2009.
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A relatively small book of four chapters that offers a mosaic picture of the studies of the May Fourth Movement, including a historiographic survey, discussion of the political context, analysis of the “May Fourth consciousness,” and descriptions of the social reform in and after the movement.
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KMT Intellectuals

Although many May Fourth participants later became involved in the Communist movement, an equal number remained non-Communists or even anti-Communists. This means, by and large, that they tended to be associated with the Kuomintang (KMT) government. Liu 1990 is a specific study of the role that some of the KMT leaders (e.g., Cai Yuanpei and Wang Jingwei) played in, or related with, the May Fourth Movement. Wang 2000 is a detailed study of Fu Sinian (Fu Ssu-nien), a student leader in the May Fourth Movement, who later became a major anti-Communist intellectual figure.

Liu Yongming 刘永明. Guomindang ren yu wusi yundong 国民党人与五四运动. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1990.
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Beginning with a general background, this work discusses how Cai Yuanpei went to Beijing to assume the presidency of Beijing University. Then after the movement broke out, it describes the KMT members’ attitude toward the May Fourth Movement and their roles in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities, with Shanghai as a focus. It ends with a description of the role played by Wang Jingwei in stopping the Chinese delegation from signing the Versailles Treaty.
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Wang, Fan-sen. Fu Ssu-nien: A Life in Chinese History and Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511529191Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Using unpublished sources held at the Institute of History and Philology, which was founded by Fu in 1928, Wang analyzes the mind of Fu and his cohorts in the New Culture Movement. He also discusses the seminal role that Fu played, after studying in Europe, in modernizing Chinese historical scholarship from the late 1920s to Fu’s death in 1950.
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In Cities and Countries Outside Beijing

The May Fourth Movement exerted a major impact on modern China because after it initially occurred in Beijing, it inspired a mass movement across the country. Over time, it also had its influence seen outside China. Chen 1971 and Eda 1992 are studies of the movement’s influence in Shanghai. Other studies of its influence include Kataoka 1982 on Tianjin, Sha 1989 on Guangdong, and Shimizu 1992 on Hunan. Kenley 2003 studies the movement’s impact on the Chinese communities in Singapore, as does Ono 2003 on Japan, although the latter also covers events outside the Chinese communities.

Chen, Joseph T. The May Fourth Movement in Shanghai: The Making of a Social Movement in Modern China. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1971.
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As a nationalist movement, student demonstrations in Beijing had ripple effects through major cities in China. Students throughout China began to activate and mobilize the masses. This book is a case study of how a social movement occurred in Shanghai during the May Fourth era.
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Eda Kenji 江田憲治. Goshi jiki no Shanhai rōdō undō 五四時期の上海労働運動. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1992.
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After the May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing, it stoked reactions in Shanghai. Civilians of various social walks showed their support of the movement, in which laborers were most active.
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Kataoka Kazutada 片岡一忠. Tenshin goshi undō shōshi 天津五四運動小史. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1982.
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A survey of how the students and civilians took actions in support of the May Fourth Movement in Beijing.
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Kenley, David L. New Culture in a New World: The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese Diaspora in Singapore, 1919–1932. New York: Routledge, 2003.
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An interesting study of the impact of the May Fourth Movement on the overseas Chinese community in Singapore. As the title suggests, it offers a transnational perspective on the era. But at the same time, the author notes that in order to promote New Culture in Singapore, the Chinese diaspora also made attempts to identify themselves as Chinese nationals. The author thus explores the double-edged discursive power of nationalism in this case.
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Ono Shinji 小野信爾. Goshi undō zai Nihon 五四運動在日本. Tokyo: Kyūko Shoin, 2003.
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An examination of how the Chinese students studying in Japan reacted to the May Fourth Movement back in China as well as how the movement was received in Japan.
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Sha Dongxun 沙东迅. Wusi yundong zai Guangdong 五四运动在广东. Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe, 1989.
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A survey of the extent of the influence of the May Fourth Movement received throughout Guangdong, with an interest in the movement’s connection with the rise of the Communist movement.
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Shimizu Minoru 清水稔. Konan Goshi Undō shōshi 湖南五四運動小史. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1992.
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A survey of the actions that students, young Mao Zedong included, and other civilians in Hunan took in support of the May Fourth Movement in Beijing.
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Women

The “women problem” was a major issue in the May Fourth era, in that the May Fourth leaders, mostly male, considered the liberation of their female counterparts from concubinage, foot-binding, and lower social position a necessary task for embracing modernity. This sentiment was reflected in Chen 1937 and documented in Ng and Wickeri 1996. Wang 1999 discusses how the “women problem,” or the solution of it, was invariably related with Chinese nationalism.

Chen Dongyuan 陈东原. Zhongguo funū shenghuoshi 中国妇女生活史. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1937.
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Written in 1928, in the wake of the May Fourth era, Chen, then a student at Peking University, offers a comprehensive overview of women’s status in imperial China. Buoyed by the anti-traditional and anti-Confucian spirit, he deplored, in a sweeping manner, the misery of Chinese women in the country’s long past.
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Ng, Janet, and Janice Wickeri, eds. May Fourth Women Writers: Memoirs. Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996.
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A useful collection of the memoirs of female writers who emerged and established their careers in the May Fourth era.
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Wang, Zheng. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
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A study of the “women problem” in the May Fourth era, containing a textual study of a women’s journal—Funü zazhi (The Lady’s Journal)—and oral interviews of eight feminists who were active in the period. It observes that although an important and formative era for developing feminism in China, the interest in, and concerns for, women’s issues became pronounced in the May Fourth period because of nationalist sentiment.
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Foreign Connection

Apart from it as a reaction to the Versailles Conference, the occurrence of the May Fourth Movement was also related with other foreign events. Fujimoto 1982 offers a detailed study of how the rising Japanese imperialism at the time triggered the movement. Song and Shi 2003 discusses how the March First Movement in Korea inspired Chinese students at Peking University in mounting their actions.

Fujimoto Hiroo 藤本博生. Nihon teikokushugi to goshi undō 日本帝国主義と五四. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1982.
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English title: Japanese Imperialism and the May Fourth [Movement]. A brief yet important study of how the May Fourth Movement was a reaction to Japanese imperialist demand and action in the early 20th century.
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Song Chenyou 宋成有, and Shi Fuxuan (Sŏk Pok-hyon) 石福铉. Beijing daxue yu Hanguo “sanyi” duli yundong 北京大学与韩国三一独立运动. Hong Kong: Xianggang shehui kexue chubanshe, 2003.
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Organized in three parts. The first part has two general articles by Song and Shi, with almost identical titles—“Peking University and the March 1st Movement.” The second contains essays on the connections, mostly by Korean scholars and one by Kojima Shinji, a Japanese scholar. The third offers archival materials on the May Fourth Movement at Peking University and related journal articles.
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