May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy[1] (commonly known as the May Fourth Movement or May 4th Movement) was an anti-imperialist, cultural and political movement that began in Beijing, China.[1] Beginning as a response to the treaty of Versailles and its unfair treatment of China, the May Fourth Movement started with mass student demonstration in Wusi Street in Beiheyan, Beijing on May 4, 1919. It developed into a national campaign to overthrow the old society and promote new ideas, including science, democracy and Marxism.[2]
According to Mao Zedong, it was with the May Fourth Movement that Chinese society began to reach the stage of rational knowledge.[3]
Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, the founders of the Communist Party of China, were also influential leaders in the movement. News about the rise of the patriotic May Fourth Movement spread widely in China. On June 9, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu drafted the “Declaration of Beijing Citizens”, in order to support and guide the development of the movement.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “On May 4, 1919, news about the rise of the patriotic May Fourth Movement – an anti-imperialist, cultural and political movement – spread widely in China. Li and Chen drafted the “Declaration of Beijing Citizens” on June 9, in order to support and guide the development of the movement.”
Li Deyi, Liang Si (29-Jun-2018). "Chen Duxiu: First General Secretary of CPC Central Committee" CGTN. Retrieved 2024-03-19. - ↑ "Monument marks birthplace of the May 4th Movement in Beijing" (04-May-2023). CGTN.
- ↑ “Similarly with the Chinese people's knowledge of imperialism. The first stage was one of superficial, perceptual knowledge, as shown in the indiscriminate anti-foreign struggles of the Movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Yi Ho Tuan Movement, and so on. It was only in the second stage that the Chinese people reached the stage of rational knowledge, saw the internal and external contradictions of imperialism and saw the essential truth that imperialism had allied itself with China's comprador and feudal classes to oppress and exploit the great masses of the Chinese people. This knowledge began about the time of the May 4th Movement of 1919.”
Mao Zedong (July 1937). On Practice.