David L. KENLEY
The May Fourth Movement is the name given to the collective effort made by intellectuals in China between 1915 and 1923 to cast off traditional Confucian values and undergo a cultural rejuvenation. A milestone of the era occurred on 4 May 1919 when demonstrators protested the treaty that ended World War I. The treaty recognized Japan’s claims to territory taken from China.
China during the 1910s and early 1920s suffered the twin plagues of imperialism