A Century of Student Movements in China : The Mountain Movers, 1919–2019

In this book the authors offer their unique perspectives on the important roles Chinese students and intellectuals played in the shaping of the twentieth-century China. Their answers to these pivotal questions explore new nationalistic spirit, modern world-views, and willingness of self-sacrifice, which had attributed to the spontaneous actions of the students as a "New Culture" emerged during the May Fourth Movement. These articles show how China nurtured these spontaneous student movements, even though the Nationalist Party in the Republic of China and the Communist Party in the People's Republic had exerted tight control over schools. Both governments established organizations as well as operations among students that effectively turned some of the student movements into a political instrument by the parties for their own agenda. Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 Note on Transliteration 9 List of Abbreviations 11 Introduction: The May Fourth Centenary, 1919–2019 13 Part I. Modernity Versus Tradition: New Cultural Movements 31 1. Assessing Li Dazhao’s Role in the Shaping of the New Cultural Movement 33 2. Advancing Nationalism with Feminism: Tianjin Women Students during the May Fourth Era 53 3. Modern Schools and the Students Radicalization in the 1910s 69 Part II. Nationalism and State-Building: New Forces 93 4. Making the First Generation of New Citizens: Returned Students and Student Movements in the Republican Era 95 5. “Student Regiments” from Guangxi: The Youth Power in China’s War against Japan, 1936–1941 125 6. Student Movement and the End of the Civil War in the Chongqing Region 149 Part III. People’s Republic and Revolution 167 7. New May Fourth Movement in Mao’s China: The May Nineteenth Movement in Peking University, 1957 169 8. Returned Students and Development of China’s Nuclear and Space Programs 191 9. Education Policy and the Pre-Cultural Revolution Shangshan Xiaxiang, 1962–1966 209 Part IV. Continuing Revolution and Reform 225 10. Mao’s Red Guards: Student Movement in the Cultural Revolution 227 11. The “April 5 Tiananmen Square Incident” and Deng Xiaoping’s Return 245 12. Mandate for Justice: Chinese College Students and the Tiananmen Demonstration 263 Conclusion: Who Move the Mountain in the Twenty-First-Century China? 297 Selected Bibliography 309 Index 327 About the Contributors 337 The book looks through five generations of Chinese students since the May Fourth Movement in 1919, explains how their ideas, actions, and impact ran like a thread through many governments and institutions that have shaped modern China, and indicates where China came from and what the country became.