Chinese May Fourth Movement as Nationalist Discourse
Keywords:
May Fourth Movement, nationalism, China, British imperialism, treaty portsAbstract
This article analyses national discourses that the Chinese and British constructed particularly during the May Fourth Movement. Moreover, the paper will analyse the form, content and function and impact of the May Fourth national rhetoric expressed by the Chinese and the British. This paper concentrates on analysing mainly cultural, historical, political dimensions of nationalism presented in China. It was clear that the May Fourth protestors, especially the urban and educated men, dominated public articulations of national identities. With their control of knowledge production and in some cases control of state bureaucracies, élite men were able to make demands for the nation, often combining their own group needs with particular definitions of the nation. British discourse that was constructed during the May Fourth Movement responded to a reality that was infinitely adaptable in its functions of preserving the basic structures of power. For the British, May Fourth demonstrators represented a potential change in the existing intellectual, political, social and economic stability which, for decades, had guaranteed a British privileged position in the country.
