New Culture Movement

The New Culture Movement was a progressivist movement in China in the 1910s and 1920s that criticized traditional Chinese ideas and promoted a new form of Chinese culture based upon progressive, modern ideals like electoral politics and the scientific method.^[1][2][3] Arising out of disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Republic of China to address China's problems,^[4] it featured scholars such as Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Hengzhe, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, He Dong, Qian Xuantong, Liu Bannong, Bing Xin, and Hu Shih, many classically educated, who led a revolt against Confucianism. The movement was launched by the writers of New Youth magazine, where these intellectuals promoted a new society based on unconstrained individuals rather than the traditional Confucian system.^[5] In 1917, Mr. Hu Shih put forward the famous “Eight Principle”, that is, abandon the ancient traditional writing method and use vernacular.^[6]

The New Culture Movement was the progenitor of the May Fourth Movement.^[7] On 4 May 1919, students in Beijing aligned with the movement protested the transfer of German rights over Jiaozhou Bay to Imperial Japan rather than China at the Paris Peace Conference (the meeting setting the terms of peace at the conclusion of World War I), transforming what had been a cultural movement into a political one.^[8]