The May Fourth Movement and Chinese Literature
China has a long and rich history that stretches over several centuries. Part of that history, naturally, is a rich cultural history that includes a fine literary tradition. Unfortunately, most of that literary tradition is not well known to the West. Modern Chinese literature, that which is popular in the Western world, developed as a result of the cultural revolution that began with the May Fourth Movement.
The May Fourth Movement was part of a cultural and political revolution in China that led to the birth of a new intellectual class in China as well as an opening up of the culture . The intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement encouraged new ideas to the people of China, including science, democracy, patriotism, and anti-imperialism . The movement got its name from the date, May 4, 1919, when thousands of students staged a protest in Beijing over the weak bargaining of the Chinese government at the treaty conferences of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I . The demonstration was in response to the Western powers granting the Shandon Province in China to Japan, which had conquered the territory from the Germans during the war. This province was important for China because it was the birthplace of Confucius. This demonstration was the beginning of many protests that spread throughout China and involved workers from many industries and walks of life. Although the May Fourth Movement was political, in its aftermath a social, literary, and cultural revolution was spawned that helped shape the new China (Schoppa 53). One interesting fact about the May Fourth Movement is that it actually began a few years before May, 4, 1919.
With the overthrow of the monarchy is 1912, China was struggling to find a new form of government. At the same time, people throughout China were demanding a social change from the Confucian ideology that dominated culture, to a culture with more freedom and individuality (Schoppa 52). This ideology was a patriarchal one that gave males the dominant position in the family and also required younger generations to obey and care for their parents. Women, especially, were calling for change since the Confucian ideology placed them at the mercy of their husband’s family for life. These calls for major cultural change began after the overthrow of the emperor in 1912 and really got a voice with the beginning of the journal entitled New Youth in 1915 (Schoppa 53). Many prominent intellectuals and political leaders of the time encouraged the youth to begin adopting more of an individualistic, Western, viewpoint in their lives. Nothing demonstrates this more than the thoughts of Chen Duxiu, founder of the New Youth journal. In its first year of publication he proposed six principles for the youth of China to follow. These are the six principles he encouraged:
Be progressive, not conservative.
Be aggressive not retiring.
Be cosmopolitan, not isolationist.
Be utilitarian, not formalistic.
Be scientific, not imaginative (Schoppa 58-59).
Although Duxiu elaborated more on each point in his article, these are the basic principles he encouraged and these were the basic ideas that motivated the May Fourth Movement.
One important change brought by the movement was a focus on language reform. Prior to this movement, the written Chinese language was formal and complex, and only scholars could read it. Intellectuals of the time realized that in order to advance, the new nation needed a literate population, and in order for that to happen, a new living language had to be developed, based on the vernacular language of the people, not on the formal literal language that existed (Schoppa 53). This new vernacular written language was officially adopted in 1919 (Chinese Literature). With this new vernacular written language, and the developing individualistic culture of the May Fourth Movement, Chinese literature underwent a transformation, creating works that were welcomed and popularized in the West.
The goals of the May Fourth Movement changed during the course of the movement. At first, the focus was on individuality and breaking the constraints of the traditional family. After the demonstrations in May, 1919, the emphasis turned toward becoming a nation and ending unwanted influence from foreign entities. While this stifled the cultural revolution toward a more Western, individualistic society, it did not stifle the literary contributions of the nation’s writers.
The May Fourth Movement impacted Chinese literature in a couple of ways. First, with the creation of a new vernacular language, literacy was available to the masses. Scholars began translation literature from Western civilization to educate the Chinese in the ways of the world, since they had been so isolated for so long. The second impact of the movement on Chinese literature was the style of literature that resulted from the cultural and political movement of the time.
When the leaders of the intellectual movement began looking for literature to translate for the Chinese population, they focused at first on works that highlighted the cultural goals of the movement. It is no coincidence that some of the earliest works translated to Chinese, like Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, feature female protagonists, since women were gaining more of a voice in Chinese society and the cultural goal of the movement was to encourage individualism and personal growth . The idea was to expose the Chinese population to works of literature that showed some of life in the world outside China, which they were yearning to be part of. Shen points out that the translators were looking for literature that would aid the modernization of China and would address the Chinese reaction against imperialism. Translators also spent a great deal of effort choosing and translating literature for children.
The idea of translating children’s literature for the Chinese children served two purposes. It helped to develop the new vernacular language for the culture in general, and it helped to create the ideal mindset for the Chinese citizen of the future (Shen). To create a new culture for the future of a nation, the children are a great place to start, since they are just beginning their development. Prior to the May Fourth Movement, the majority of the children’s literature focused on the ideal of the family and service to the emperor. The intellectuals and translators of the movement wanted to develop an idea of individualism, nation, imagination, and exploration in the children. They chose fairy tales as one of the major means of development. Fairy tales offered morals as well as the merging of the human and animal world (Shen). This helped to remove some of the Confucian ideals and replace them with Western ideals of evolution and progress. Science was also an important component of children’s literature. The idea was to generate interest in the scientific method to children to develop their curiosity and desire to learn how the world around them worked. The translators were also careful to include works that conveyed the concepts of artistic beauty in order to counter the Confucian emphasis on following and obeying. They wanted to develop young citizens who could express themselves and appreciate the beauty of the world around them. While working to translate important examples of literature from the West, Chinese intellectuals and authors were busy creating their own works.
The May Fourth Movement helped to create an environment where writers were free to write freely, and even criticize the government. The early phases of the movement saw many writers writing stories for art’s sake (Chinese Literature). During this time, writers modelled the writing of the Western writers with a preference toward Russian authors. However, the political environment in China, especially toward the end of the movement, encouraged writers to focus more on art for societies sake (Chinese Literature). Critical realism is a style of writing that would dominate the Chinese literary elite for many years. The major works of the time show a world of chaos, hopelessness, and a desire for change, and give the reader a feeling of actually being a part of the times (Chinese Literature).
One example of this is Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Lu Xun, who is considered to be the father of modern Chinese literature. Diary of a Madman was the first short story written in the new vernacular Chinese language and became a well-known example of excellent Chinese literature for the twentieth century. This is a story of a madman who is convinced that he is sane and everyone else in mad (Chinese Literature). Lu Xun’s most popular short story is The True Story of Ah Q, which is a negative commentary of the Chinese character. Other popular authors from the May Fourth Movement include Luo Tuo Xiang Zi who wrote Richshaw: The Novel Lo-T’s Hsiang Tzu about a young rickshaw puller who falls into despair due to societies individualistic nature; Lao She, author of a set of short stories entitled, Blades of Grass: The Stories of Lao She; and Mao Dun, who wrote Midnight, and Rainbow, both of which tell of some of the struggles of China in the 1930’s (Chinese Literature). All of these works were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and provide to the West a clear accounting of some of the struggles of the Chinese people as the Chinese culture evolved and grew after the turmoil of the first couple of decades of the twentieth century.
The May Fourth Movement if regarded as a major cultural upheaval in Chinese society. It developed from a desire for a new way of life and a reaction to imperialism from Western and Eastern forces. The movement enabled major cultural changes for the Chinese population. For the literary world, it opened the Chinese culture to Western ideas and Western culture while providing an outlet for Chinese authors to tell their stories of live in China.
Works Cited
Chinese Literature: Modern Fiction: 1900’s-1940’s. Yellowbridge. 2016. Web. 23 April 2016.
Mack, L. May Fourth Movement. 24 November 2014. Web. 23 April 2016.
Panda, A. "The Legacy of China's May Fourth Movement." The Diplomat 5 May 2015. Web.
Schoppa, R. Keith. Twentieth Century China: A History in Documents. USA: Oxford University Press, 2010. Textbook.
Shen, Chu. "Canon Formation and Children's Literature during the May Fourth Period." Comparative Literature and Culture 16.6 (2014). Web.
