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This book looks at China's May Fourth Movement and how it has been contextualised in modern Chinese history. Tracing the roots of the movement and of modern Chinese literary and intellectual traditions, the book analyses how the movement transformed ideas, culture, and social practices in the country.
The volume presents a critical in-depth study of the May Fourth Movement from interdisciplinary perspectives. With essays written by scholars and experts from India, China, and the West, it discusses concepts and themes such as nationalism; the citizen and revolutionary morality in the late Qing dynasty as well as Lu Xun's struggle with the aporetic temporalities of capitalist modernity; the May Fourth spirit and the Communist Party of China; the birth of the 'New Woman'; and the literature, cinema, and art produced during the movement. It also examines how the waves created by the movement in Chinese culture and society continue to influence and shape events and thoughts in contemporary times.
This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Chinese Studies, Chinese history, Asian Studies, Asian history, political history, and cultural history.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
- Rethinking May Fourth Movement: An Interdisciplinary Approach
- The May Fourth Movement of 1919: Nationalism and Predicaments of Nation-State in China
Kamal Sheel
- Modernising the Inner Sage: Citizen and Revolutionary Morality in the Late Qing
Viren Murthy
- Life after Death in the Chinese Revolution: The Dialogism of Ritual and Political Discourse in the May Fourth Period
Patricia Uberoi
- Evolution, Eternal Recurrence, and Lu Xun's Struggle with the Aporetic Temporalities of Capitalist Modernity: Reapproaching Lu Xun's Yecao (Xu, Guoke, Ying de gaobie)
Christian Uhl
- Creating New Culture Movement/May Fourth Binaries: Are Contemporary Chinese Interpretations of Wusi ( ) Unhistorical?
Hemant Adlakha
- Making of May Fourth Spirit
- The May Fourth Spirit and the Communist Party of China: Evolution and Significance of an Umbilical Relationship
Prashant Kaushik
- Contribution of Youth Activism in Shaping May Fourth Spirit in China
Rakesh Kumar
- One Movement Illuminating Another: The Birth of "New Women" from within the 'May Fourth Movement'
Usha Chandran
- Legacy of May Fourth Movement: View from India
- The May Fourth Movement in Indian Newsprint: Glimpses through the Times of India
Natasha Nongbri
- 1919 in Chinese and Indian History: Analysing the Legacies of the May Fourth Movement and the Jallianwala Bagh incident
Nirmola Sharma
IV. New Literature and New Cultural Formations
- The Historic Role of Hu Shi in the May Fourth Movement
Avijit Banerjee
- Female Subjectivity and Consciousness: A 'New Culture' in Women's Literature of Early Twentieth-Century China
Manju Rani Hara
- The Interaction between Nationalism and the Chinese Film Industry: Multiimensionality of the May Fourth Movement and Nationalism in Modern China
Wang Chaoguang
- The New Culture Movement and Huaju: From an Art Form to an Agent of Change
Nishit Kumar
V. Construction of New Culture
- Towards Modernity: New Cultural Constructs and Contestations
Poonam Surie
- The Making of a 'New Culture': Literature and Art since the May Fourth Movement
Sabaree Mitra
Index
About the author
Sabaree Mitra is Professor of Chinese in Jawaharlal Nehru University, an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, and a member of the Editorial Board of China Report. Her teaching and research have spanned the fields of contemporary Chinese literature and criticism, Chinese cultural history, gender issues, and India–China cultural relations and regional interaction. She was the Chairperson of the Indian Expert Group that compiled the Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts (2014) under the aegis of the Governments of India and China. In 2017, she was honoured with the Special Book Award of China for her contributions in introducing, translating, and publishing books on Chinese culture as well as in promoting cultural exchanges.
Summary
This book looks at China’s May Fourth Movement and how it has been contextualized in modern Chinese history. Tracing the roots of the movement and of modern Chinese literary and intellectual traditions it analyses how it transformed ideas, culture and social practices in the country.
