May Fourth Period (1915-25)

1. May Fourth Period (1915-25) Failure of the 1911 Revolution -first parliamentary form of government in this history of the mainland -Yuan Shikai 袁世凯 and monarchical restoration attempts (中华帝国大皇帝) Sun Yatsen 孙中山(right), leader of the 1911 Revolution; Yuan Shikai (left); A poster that commemorates the permanent President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, and the provisional President of the Republic, Sun Yat-sen.

2. May Fourth Period Warlord Period (1916-25) -nation is politically fragmented into areas controlled by regional warlords(军阀) -some warlords are worse than others; some are even reformist minded

3. May Fourth Period May Fourth as Political Movement -protest against Versailles Treaty (1919) and Western/Japanese imperialism -nationalist movement in favor of self-determination Demonstration on Tian’anmen Square, May 4, 1919

4. May Fourth Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (1921) -a product of May Fourth nationalism/anti-imperialism and the successful Bolshevik Revolution -Marxism and communism were one of many “isms” in which May Fourth intellectuals took interest Room in Shanghai where the CCP held its first congress, now a museum

5. May Fourth May Fourth as the New Culture Movement (新文化运动) Chinese Renaissance (Hu Shi) -vernacular movement Chinese Enlightenment (Vera Schwarcz) -science and rationalism Chinese Romantic Era (Leo Ou-fan Lee) -individualism and subjectivity

6. May Fourth Peking University (北京大学) -center of May Fourth iconoclasm -President Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 fostered a rare intellectual climate of liberalism and pluralism (兼容并包) The Red Building (above), part of the old campus of Peking University; Cai Yuanpei (left)

7. May Fourth Iconoclasm and the attack on the Confucian tradition -science -individualism -evolutionism -rule of law -democracy -liberalism -seeds for all can be found in late Qing, but developed in May Fourth New Youth journal, edited by Chen Duxiu 陈独秀, was the leading May Fourth forum

8. May Fourth May Fourth Generation—Conclusions -totalistic iconoclasm -search for new values, ideologies, models, etc. -search for selfhood -paradoxes: (1) nationalism/cosmopolitanism; (2) rationalism/romanticism; (3) skepticism/religiosity; (4) individualism/collectivism; (5) materialism/idealism

9. May Fourth Writing should have substance Do not imitate the ancients Emphasize the technique of writing (i.e., clarity of expression) Do not moan without an illness Eliminate hackneyed and formal language Do not use allusions Do not use parallelism Do not avoid vulgar diction Literary Movement Vernacular (Baihuawen白话文) Movement -antecedents in the late Qing -Hu Shi 胡适, “Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature” (文学改良刍议) Above: Hu Shi; Right: Hu Shi’s “eight don’ts” (八不主义)

10. May Fourth (1) overthrow flowery language of aristocracy; establish plain language of people (2) overthrow stereotypes and classicism, establish “fresh, sincere, realist literature” (3) overthrow obscurantism and pedanticism, establish “comprehensible, popularized, social literature” Literary Movement -Chen Duxiu 陈独秀, “On Literary Revolution”(文学革命论) Chen Duxiu

11. May Fourth Literary Movement Achievements -quick “victory” of vernacular over classical -development of a new “literary language” that was a hybrid of traditional vernacular, classical elements, foreign syntax and translated terms) -removal of traditional vernacular “storyteller” narrative (framing devices, couplets, rhetorical narrator, coincidence) -classical allusions minimized -first person narration introduced -irony -short story -experimentation with time (e.g., flashback, blank time, etc) -point of view (single character reflectors in third-person texts) -unreliable narrators -new kinds of fictional themes, content, etc.

12. “New Literature” Field New Literature (新文学) reaction against classicism and commercial “Butterfly” fiction Literary Societies Literary Association(文学研究会) Creation Society (创造社) Cover of issue of Creation (far right) and Short Story Monthly (right):