Touches of history : an entry into 'May Fourth' China / / by Chen Pingyuan ; translated by Michel Hockx ; with Maria af Sandeberg, Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, Christopher Neil Payne, and Christopher Rosenmeier.

• Author: Chen, Pingyuan, 1954-
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's humanities in China library, v. 2; Brill's Humanities in China Library 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (447 p.)
• Notes: Translation of: Chu mo li shi yu jin ru wu silent.

The “May Fourth Movement” of 1919 is generally seen as the central event in China’s transformation from the traditional to the modern. It signalled the arrival of effective student activism on the political scene; it heralded the success of outspoken anti-imperialist ideologies; its slogans and pamphlets demonstrated the rhetorical qualities of the new vernacular writing; some of its participants went on to become leading cultural and political figures; it is said to have given birth to the Communist Party. The latter aspect has ensured that a particular narrative of the movement remained enshrined in official Chinese state ideology for many decades, a narrative often opposed by those outside China for similarly ideological reasons. No movement in modern Chinese history and culture has been more researched, yet none has been less understood. This award-winning book, by one of Peking University’s most famous professors, represents a groundbreaking attempt to return to a study of “May Fourth” that is solidly grounded in historical fact. Favouring smaller stories over grand narratives, concentrating on unknown, marginal materials rather than familiar key documents, and highlighting “May Fourth”’s indebtedness to the cultural debates of the preceding late Qing period, Chen Pingyuan reconstructs part of the actual historical scenery, demonstrating the great variety of ideas expressed during those tumultuous decades.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Chen Pingyuan -- Introduction / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER ONE On the Day of May the Fourth: An Alternative Narrative of the ‘May Fourth’ Movement / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER TWO Literature from the Perspective of Intellectual History: Studies of New Youth / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER THREE Enquiring into the Meaning of the University: Cai Yuanpei as an Educationist / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER FOUR How to Formulate Knowledge: The Vernacular Writing of Zhang Taiyan / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER FIVE The Shaping of the Canon: How the Zhou Brothers and Others Edited Hu Shi’s Poems / Chen Pingyuan -- CHAPTER SIX Writings in the Margins of ‘New Culture’: New Discoveries from among Heaps of Old Papers / Chen Pingyuan -- Bibliography / Chen Pingyuan -- Index / Chen Pingyuan.