But, most of all, they were protesting against a weak Chinese government, unable to safeguard China's rights, and a weak China. The intellectuals "” Chinese students then and now saw themselves as intellectuals "” advocated western learning, believing that Confucianism was responsible for the country's backwardness.
They called for two western concepts, Science and Democracy, personified as Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy.
The demonstrations on that day unleashed an emotional and intellectual torrent that swept the country, with those events remembered to this day as the May Fourth Movement. The nationalist tide led to the formation of the Communist Party of China two years later.
In fact, the Communist identification with the 1919 protesters was so strong that the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square contains engravings that depict the May Fourth demonstrators.
Those events continue to be observed, with May 4 being designated as Youth Day. And so, President Hu Jintao on Saturday urged young Chinese at the Agricultural University in Beijing to embrace four qualities-patriotism, diligence, practice and devotion to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.
By turning May 4 into Youth Day and telling today's youth how they should live their lives, the Communist Party is trying to co-opt the spirit of May 4 as well as the idealism of young people today. However, this does not always work.
The May Fourth Movement itself, too, continues to be commemorated. The official China Daily published an article headlined "Legacy of May Fourth Movement endures."� It said, "The participants of the movement awakened hundreds of millions of Chinese people to the enthusiastic patriotic spirit, and achieved unprecedented social mobilization with its incisive slogan 'defend our sovereignty and punish the traitors.'"�
However, the author, Qin Xiaoying, a researcher with the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies, while extolling the ideals of science and democracy, was careful to say that "there are different understandings on democracy."�
Twenty years ago, the students massed in Tiananmen Square, too, saw themselves as the heirs of the May Fourth Movement. On that day in 1989, despite a government prohibition, thousands of students from Peking University, Qinghua University, Beijing Normal University, the China University of Political Science and Law, and other universities marched from their respective campuses to Tiananmen Square, their banners flapping in the wind.1|2|Next PageRead Full Article »
