¶ … unrest in china? According to page 63 the New Culture Movement "…was the result of intellectual, political, social and economic ferment. It was the climax of a mental awakening that had begun in 1915" (Leung). Japan had gained a large sphere of interest in northern China and Manchuria through its victories in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and had thus joined the European imperialist powers in their rush to establish political and economic domination over China. With the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the new Republic of China under General Yuan Shikai, Japan saw an opportunity to expand its position in China.

Sun Yat-sen repeatedly declared that the Twenty One Demands were invited and even written by Yuan Shikai himself. The price Yuan was willing to pay Japan for recognizing him as Emperor. Although China later joined on the side of the Allies in World War I, the Japanese demanded the German spheres of influence in China, and also wanted special economic rights for the Japanese nationals living in parts of China. Chinese diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference became the incident that touched off the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, and became known as the "Shandong Problem."

The May 4th event began in Beijing and quickly spread to other cities and universities. "On may 4, 1919, about 5,000 student in Beijing held a huge demonstration against the decision of the Versailles Peace Conference to accept Japanese control of the former German concessions in Shandong Province. It was at once an explosion of public anger an outburst of nationalism, an expression of deep disappointment in the West, and a violent indictment of the "traitorous" warlord government in Beijing" (Leung). The May 4th Movement served as an intellectual turning point in China because, it was an event that radicalized Chinese intellectual thought. According to Leung, "Some historians today hail the May fourth incident as the first serious mass movement in Chinese history."

The May Fourth Movement promoted the spreading of Marxism in China, and prepared the ideological foundation for the establishment of the Chinese Communist...

The May Fourth Movement was a part of the world's Proletarian Revolution.
Continuing political unrest in China is still a recurring issue. In its broader sense, the May Fourth Movement led to the establishment of radical intellectuals who went on to mobilize peasants and workers into the Communist party and gain the organizational strength that would solidify the success of the Communist Revolution. The May 4th movement effectively resulted in China becoming a communist nation.

Q: Discuss what was meant by the phrase "let 100 flowers bloom," and how did this idea end?

The phrase "let 100 flowers bloom" refers mostly to a brief six weeks in the People's Republic of China in the early summer of 1957. During this the Communist Party of China (CPC) encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues. It was launched under the slogan: "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land." During this period, which some refer to as the Chinese renaissance, individuals were encouraged to think and have an opportunity to effect the government.

In the summer of 1956 Mao had superseded Zhou to take control. The idea of "let 100 flowers bloom" was to have intellectuals discuss the China's problems in order to promote new forms of arts and new cultural institutions. Mao, however, also saw this as the chance to promote socialism. He believed that after discussion, it would be apparent that socialist ideology was the dominant ideology over capitalism, even amongst non-communist Chinese, and would thus propel the development and spread of the goals of socialism.

The name of the movement originated in a poem: "Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend." Mao had used this to signal what he had wanted from the intellectuals of the country, for different and competing ideologies to voice their opinions about the issues of the day. He alluded to the Warring States era when numerous schools of thought competed for ideological, not military, supremacy. Historically, Confucianism and…