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The New Culture Movement covered the period from 1915 to 1923. How does the May Fourth Movement fit into the wider movement? |
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See answer below. |
A sense of nationalism and patriotism among the Chinese people had steadily risen from the late Qing dynasty to the early years of the Republic. The bullying that China suffered at the hands of foreign powers due to its weakness was particularly resented by young students. When news of the Paris Peace Conference diplomatic failure arrived, it lit the fuse of the powder keg of pent-up frustration.
Cao Rulin, Minister of Transport, had signed the Twenty-One Demands on behalf of the Yuan Shikai Government while Lu Zongyu, Director-General of the Chinese Mint, had borrowed heavily from the Japanese; Zhang Zongxiang was China’s ambassador to Japan. The trio were blamed for betraying China’s national interests to Japan and branded national traitors by the students. The May Fourth demonstrators went to Cao Rulin’s residence to seize the man himself. Instead of Cao Rulin, they found Zhang Zongxiang there. Mistaking him for Cao Rulin, they beat him up and burned Cao’s residence, an incident later known as the “burning of Zhaojialou” .
Although the May Fourth Movement did not result in the immediate return of the German interests in Shandong to China, the movement drew national attention to the issue and China finally achieved a diplomatic breakthrough on this matter. From November 12, 1921 to February 6, 1922, an international conference was held in Washington D.C.. Nine countries were represented comprising the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and China. They met with the aim of limiting the naval arms race and resolving issues in the Pacific and Far East. An imposing Chinese delegation of over 130 people, headed by the plenipotentiaries Shi Zhaoji (施肇基), Gu Weijun (顧維鈞) and Wang Chonghui (王寵惠) was dispatched to participate in the conference. On February 4, China and Japan signed a treaty called For the Settlement of Outstanding Questions Related to Shandong (解決山東問題懸案條約) and its supplementary agreements. It mandated that Japan should return to China the former German Leased Territory and Shandong should be opened to trade. Furthermore, Japan agreed to withdraw its troops from Qingdao (青島) and the Jiaoji (膠濟) Railway Zone and auxiliary rail lines, and return control of the Qingdao Customs, Jiaoji Railway and its auxiliary lines to China. While the supplementary agreement of the treaty did grant various privileges to the Japanese and other foreigners, China nevertheless succeeded in recovering Shandong and its ownership of the Jiaoji Railroad through the treaty and without the threat or use of military force. It answered the May Fourth Movement’s call to “struggle for sovereignty externally” and was regarded as one of China’s major diplomatic victories after the founding of the Republic.
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The New Culture Movement covered the period from 1915 to 1923. How does the May Fourth Movement fit into the wider movement? |
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Though catalyzed by the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement was essentially a national movement best characterized by its slogan “struggle for sovereignty externally, get rid of national traitors at home”. It started with the students’ demonstration in Tiananmen Square on May 4, 1919; by June, it had spread to Shanghai and led to large-scale class boycotts, labor and business strikes in support of the students. As a result, the government was forced to release the detained students and remove Cao Ruilin, Lu Zongyu and Zhang Zongxiang from office. It forced the government to refuse to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28. It was considered a victory at that stage, and the movement came to a close soon after. Later on, some of the terms of the Twenty-One Demands were withdrawn when China and Japan signed a treaty called For the Settlement of Outstanding Questions Related to Shandong at the Washington Conference held in 1922. Yet it was not until Japan’s surrender in 1945 that the complete set of demands were abolished. These were some of the aftermaths of the May Fourth Movement. |
