Witness Against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth Century China. By Yomi Braester. [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. 264+xii pp. ISBN 0-8047-4792-X.]

2004 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 813-815
Author(s):  
Chris Berry
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Stanford University ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Literature And Film ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Do not be fooled by the modest, precise, and careful tone of Yomi Braester's prose. In Witness Against History, he makes a powerful contribution to the transformation of scholarship on modern Chinese culture. In recent years, scholars such as Leo Ou-fan Lee and David Der-wei Wang have argued that the focus on the May Fourth movement has been too singular, obscuring important schools and authors that do not fit that agenda. Braester takes this argument home to May Fourth culture and its inheritors in literature and film. This work has been assumed to uphold the standard of modernity as nationalism, realism, rationalism, and humanism. This makes it part of a larger reform or revolution effort to reinsert China into “history,” understood as Hegelian progress. Braester understands the shock of the modern new as trauma, and this is reflected in all the works he has chosen.

scholarly journals The Cultural Spirit of the “May Fourth Movement” and Lu Xun’s Ambivalent Thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-382
Author(s):  
Fugui Zhang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Lu Xun ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Logical Connection ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

The “May Fourth Movement” is undoubtedly a turning point in the history of modern Chinese society and culture. It must be acknowledged that the direction of development of Chinese culture was largely influenced by famous Chinese writer, educator and revolutionary Lu Xun (1881–1936). The structure of Lu Xun’s ideas and the influence of Lu Xun’s ideas today have shaped the ever-living “Lu Xun’s culture”. The main essence of Lu Xun’s culture is embodied in many important judgments regarding the development of the nation, society and culture. These judgments are aimed not only at the past, but also at the future and the present. Many of his thoughts were a century ahead their time. Speaking about Lu Xun’s anti-traditionalist approach to the development of new culture, one cannot ignore the rationalistic cultural spirit of the enlightenment ideology behind it. Lu Xun’s pessimism at the beginning of the “May Fourth Movement” and the subsequent bitterness can serve as a key to understanding the cultural spirit of the “May Fourth Movement” and its logical connection with Lu Xun’s culture. Analyzing Lu Xun’s criticism of China’s unrealized democracy and his skepticism about the new culture, one can see that Lu Xun’s inner mood is shrouded in a shadow of disappointment. Moreover, until the end of his days, he was accompanied by pain caused by too sober and deep perception of life. In addition, the reason for Lu Xun’s distrust is that too often, due to his decency and simplicity, he was deceived. We believe that the spiritual world of Lu Xun has always been characterized by the presence of two levels: Lu Xun is open, throwing loud calls, and Lu Xin is hidden, suffering and lonely. At the same time, his inherent sharpness stems from a deep understanding of the situation, and his bitterness comes from a firm will and an uncompromising attitude to his views. The reason for such bitterness is due to the strength and immensity of the objects of his resistance. Lu Xun’s views have enriched the thinking of China and all mankind.

Liang Chʻi-chʻao and Intellectual Changes in the Late Nineteenth Century

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Chang
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Modern China ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Fourth Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

In the cultural transition from traditional to modern China, the decade of the 1890's, along with the early 1900's, stands as an important watershed the significance of which, so far, has not received sufficient appreciation and adequate assessment by historians. Its importance, indeed, can hardly be overestimated. Intellectually, the period saw the conclusion of the ching-shih tradition in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the search for ideological reorientation in the twentieth century. Socially, these years witnessed the differentiation of a hitherto unitary class of gentry into two important status groups which dominated the social scene of twentieth-century China, namely intelligentsia and landlord-gentry. Yet why has such an important watershed so far not received enough attention?Perhaps one reason is that in the past there has been a general tendency among historians to focus attention to the dramatic May Fourth Movement of 1919 as the great divide in the cultural transformation of modern China. This tendency resulted in a widespread impression that during the May Fourth period there was a cataclysmic release of new cultural forces which made a clean sweep of the past and thereby made the post-May Fourth period an entirely different intellectual world from what had been before. Such a view would almost inevitably, as it did, have the consequence of diverting attention away from many important intellectual changes which antedated the May Fourth period and whose significance cannot be appreciated by an isolated focus oh that period. There is no intention here to deny the significance of the May Fourth Movement in the cultural development of modern China. All that is suggested is that the May Fourth Movement needs to be reassessed from a broader historical perspective, a perspective which can only be attained by a detailed investigation of the intellectual changes which took place in the late Ch'ing, in particular, in the decade from mid-1890's to mid-1900's.

scholarly journals Wherever We Find Friends there Begins a New Life: Tagore and China

Asian Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Jana Rošker
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Poetry ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Rabindranath Tagore ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
The Many ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Tagore made a deep impression upon the Chinese culture and society. In 1923, the Jiangxue she 講學社 (Beijing Lecture Association) invited Rabindranath Tagore to deliver a series of talks. The Jiangxue she Association was established in September 1920 and represented one of the many institutions that came to life in China during the May Fourth Movement. Since then, almost all of his works in English have been translated into Chinese. He came to China just when the latter was beginning her Renaissance and his visit certainly gave a great impetus to this new movement. His poems of Stray Birds and The Crescent Moon have created new styles of prosody in the new Chinese poetry. A Crescent Moon Society (for poetry) and a Crescent Moon magazine were started immediately after this event by Hu Shi 胡适 (Hu 2002: 90). During his visit, Tagore raised two basic questions, one about the relation between tradition and modernity, and the other about the usual identification of modernisation with Westernisation. Since the May Fourth Movement, China has also been concerned with these questions and Chinese intellectuals have come out with different answers. These questions, however, were important not only for China but for India as well. Such debates and the revaluation of various answers represented the most important condition for a consolidation of new ideologies, which formed a political basis for the changing societies of both countries.

The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals and Chinese Political Culture 1898–1929. By Timothy B. Weston. [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2004. xiv+325 pp. $60.00; £39.95. ISBN 0-520-23767-6.]

2004 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 841-843
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Elman
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
New Culture Movement ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
The University ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Timothy Weston's study of Beijing University (hereafter, “Beida”) spotlights how modern Chinese intellectuals positioned themselves politically and socially in the early 20th century. Weston relies on the Beida archives, dailies, journals, and many other sources, to make four contributions. First, Beida's early history shows how literati humanists repositioned themselves during a period of great uncertainty. New style intellectuals had influence because they mastered Western and classical learning. Secondly, Beida's complex history did not break sharply with the past. Earlier accounts of the May Fourth movement obscure the efforts of intellectuals since 1898 to redefine their role. Weston suggests that May Fourth amplified a continuing progression of new and old ways of doing things. Thirdly, political tensions emerged when the university increasingly radicalized after 1911. No more than 20 per cent of Beida students were involved in the New Culture movement. A strong conservative undertow continually challenged radical agendas. Often we hear only the voices of the latter. Finally, Weston assesses Beida's history in light of how the May Fourth movement played out in different locations. In the 1920s, Shanghai replaced Beijing as the leading venue for urban China's cultural and intellectual leaders. Beijing increasingly lost status under warlordism, and the Nationalist shift of the capital to Nanjing refocused Chinese intellectual life on the Chang (Yangtze) delta.

scholarly journals Innovative or Rather Traditional? Confucianising Tragedy in May Fourth China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letizia Fusini
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discussion ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

A key aspect of the May Fourth Movement was the critical discussion of Western tragedy. While the interest in tragedy was sparked by the assumption that China lacked an analogous genre, its interpretation and adaptation to the Chinese context suggests that a traditional ‘indigenous’ filter was applied to define its supposed ‘modernity’. Through cross-comparing Chinese conceptions of beiju 悲剧 in the May Fourth era and traditional Chinese views of bei 悲, this paper will seek to show that the Chinese reception of tragedy was informed by the rejuvenation of traditional ideas rather than the introduction of purely ‘Western’ theories.

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