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Students in Beijing rallied during the May Fourth Movement.

The May Fourth Movement (Chinese: 五四運動; pinyin: wǔ sì yùn dòng) was one of the famous anti-foreign movements in China. Some scholars call it "the Chinese Enlightenment." Taking place on May 4, 1919, it marked the beginning of the upsurge of nationalist feeling, with unity of purpose among patriotic Chinese of all classes. The movement grew out of dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles settlement and the effect of the New Cultural Movement. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... student protests at the May Fourth movement File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... student protests at the May Fourth movement File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Pinyin (拼音, pÄ«nyÄ«n) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin. ... May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ...

Background

At home, on one hand, the government of the Northern Warlords yielded to the pressure exerted by the imperialist foreign powers and failed to act in the general interests of the Chinese people. It greatly increased its control of land, industry and mining, resulting in large increases in taxation. This, together with the tangled warfare among warlords which was still continuing led to great suffering among the population. The domestic class contradictions, which were deepening day by day, became the fundamental cause of the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement. On the other hand, during World War I, the national industries developed, the working class rapidly grew in strength, and the workers struggled by frequently going on strike. The development of the New Cultural Movement promoted the emancipation of the mind, and spurred the advanced elements, especially young students, to actively participate in patriotic activities. These prepared the class and ideological foundation for the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement. World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Students in Beijing rallied during the May Fourth Movement. ...

The outbreak and course of the May Fourth Movement

In early 1919, the victorious nations of World War I convened a peace conference in Paris. The representatives of the Chinese government put forth the following requests: do away with the privileges of the imperialist countries in China, cancel the "Twenty-One Demands" of the Japanese, take back the privileges in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany during World War I. Britain and the United States dominated the meeting and rejected the Chinese representatives' demands. The failure in diplomacy of China at the Paris Peace Conference became the incident that touched off the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement. The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... The Twenty-One Demands were a set of demands which the Japanese government of Okuma Shigenobu sent to the Chinese government in 1915. ... Shandong (Simplified Chinese: 山东; Traditional Chinese: 山東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-tung) is a coastal province of eastern Peoples Republic of China. ... The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 was an international conference, organized by the victors of the World War I for negotiating the peace treaties between the Allied and Associated Powers and their former enemies. ...

On May 4th, over 3000 students of Peking University and other schools gathered together in front of Tiananmen and held a demonstration. They shouted out such slogans as "Struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "Do away with the 'Twenty-One Demands'", "Don't sign the Versailles Treaty". They demanded with one voice to punish such figures as Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, and Lu Zongyu, who held important posts as diplomats. The enraged students even burnt Cao Rulin's house. The government of the Northern Warlords suppressed the demonstration and arrested many students. Peking University 博学审问慎思明辨 Peking University or Beijing University (pinyin Běijīng Dàxué), colloquially Beida (北大, pinyin běidà), is one of the most prestigious universities in China. ... The Tiananmen The Tiananmen or Tiananmen (Simplified Chinese: 天安门; Traditional Chinese: 天安門; pinyin: ; literally Gate of Heavenly Peace), is the principal entrance to the Imperial Palace Grounds, commonly called the Forbidden City, in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China. ... The Twenty-One Demands were a set of demands which the Japanese government of Okuma Shigenobu sent to the Chinese government in 1915. ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ... Lu Zongyu was a Chinese diplomat in the Paris Peace conference after World War I. Categories: Substubs ...

The next day, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike, and students in other parts of the country responded one after another. Beijing   listen? (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital city of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

From early June, in order to support the students' struggle, workers and businessmen in Shanghai also went on strike. So did workers in other places one after another. The center of the movement moved from Beijing to Shanghai. The working class went up on the political stage and brought great pressure to bear on the government of the Northern Warlords. The warlords' government had to set free the arrested students and dismiss Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang and Lu Zongyu from their posts. Later, people of the whole China struggled to refuse to sign on the Versailles Treaty. As a result, the Chinese representatives in Paris didn't sign on the peace treaty. The May Fourth Movement won the initial victory. Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; pinyin: ; Shanghainese IPA: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is Chinas largest city. ... Lu Zongyu was a Chinese diplomat in the Paris Peace conference after World War I. Categories: Substubs ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Historical significance and the New Cultural Movement

The May Fourth Movement was thoroughly an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary movement. Young students acted as its pioneers. The Chinese working class went up on the political stage, and functioned as the main force in the later period of the movement. Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and other intellectuals directed and promoted the development of the movement, and played leading roles in it. Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Li Dazhao (李大釗, Wades-Giles: Li Ta-chao) (October 29, 1888 - April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual who cofounded the Communist Party of China with Chen Duxiu in 1921. ... Chen Duxiu (October 8, 1879 - May 27, 1942) played many different roles in Chinese history. ...

The May Fourth Movement covered more than 20 provinces and over 100 cities of the country. It had a broader popular foundation than the Revolution of 1911. Its great contribution lay in arousing the people's consciousness and preparing for the unity of the revolutionary forces. The Xinhai Revolution (or Hsinhai Revolution, Chinese: 辛亥革命; pinyin: Xīnhài Gémìng), named for the Chinese year of Xinhai (1911), was the overthrow (October 10, 1911-February 12, 1912) of Chinas ruling Qing Dynasty, sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, and the establishment of the Republic of China. ...

The May Fourth Movement promoted the spreading of Marxism in China, and prepared the ideological foundation for the establishment of the Communist Party of China. The October Revolution pointed out the direction for the Chinese revolution. The May Fourth Movement, which took place after the October Socialist Revolution, was a part of the world's Proletarian Revolution. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Communist Party of China flag The Communist Party of China (Simplified Chinese: 中国共产党; Traditional Chinese: 中國共産黨; pinyin: ) is the ruling party of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is called a proletarian. ...

The May Fourth Movement marked the beginning of the New Democratic Revolution in China. It also served as a intellectual turning point in China. It was the seminal event that radicalized Chinese intellectual thought. Previously Western style liberal democracy had a degree of traction amongst Chinese intellectuals. However the Versailles Treaty was viewed as a betrayal. Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, cloaked as they were by moralism, were specifically and Western centrist thought more generally seen as hypocritical and was jettisoned by the Chinese intellectual community. The adoption of Marxist Leninism began to take hold on the left. It was during this time that communism was studied seriously by some Chinese intellectuals such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ... Order: 28th President Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall Term of office: March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1921 Preceded by: William Howard Taft Succeeded by: Warren G. Harding Date of birth: December 28, 1856 Place of birth: Staunton, Virginia Date of death: February 3, 1924 Place of death: Washington, D.C... United States President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, outlining Fourteen Points for reconstructing a new Europe following World War I. While many of the points were specific, others were more general, including freedom of the seas, abolishing secret treaties, disarmament, restored sovereignty of some... Moralism is the philosophy of adherence to morality. ... In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism (a form of Communism) and is a branch in its own right (it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a popular movement. ... Chen Duxiu (October 8, 1879 - May 27, 1942) played many different roles in Chinese history. ... Li Dazhao (李大釗, Wades-Giles: Li Ta-chao) (October 29, 1888 - April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual who cofounded the Communist Party of China with Chen Duxiu in 1921. ...

See also

• History of the Republic of China
• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989