Author ｜
Rudolf. G. Wagner Chien-wei Pan trans.
Abstract ｜
This article examines the interplay between the May Fourth Movement and the media environment of political communication after World War I, with particular attention to the pivotal roles played by diplomats, journalists, and intellectuals in shaping public opinion and propaganda. It reconsiders the May Fourth Movement as part of the global wave of postwar nationalism and as a significant experiment in public communication. Drawing on archival materials, newspapers, and private correspondence, the study reconstructs the cross-cultural interactions between 1915, when the “Twenty-One Demands” were issued, and the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. It analyzes the interconnections among international media, propaganda organizations, and Chinese intellectuals, thereby challenging nationalist-centered narratives of the movement. The political mobilization of the May Fourth Movement was deeply informed by global public opinion and wartime propaganda practices, centering on the defense of Chinese sovereignty and resistance to Japanese threats. Participants in China and abroad confronted seven key challenges, including the “Twenty-One Demands,” the controversy over the Paris Peace Treaty, the financial pressures of the international banking consortium, efforts to block the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and campaigns to restore Shandong sovereignty to China and so forth. The activities of the American Information Committee in China in the late 1930s further carried forward the movement’s spirit, underscoring its lasting influence on Chinese diplomacy and international public opinion. This article challenges the conventional “master narrative” that portrays the May Fourth Movement primarily as a national awakening and anti-imperialist campaign. It demonstrates that the movement marked a critical turning point in China’s political and cultural transformation and represents an early instance in which international actors and media technologies shaped national policymaking. The May Fourth Movement was thus not an isolated national event but part of a broader global surge of postwar nationalism, whose propaganda strategies continued to inform modern political communication.
keywords ｜
May Fourth Movement, international actors, Committee on Public Information, public opinion and propaganda, global history