118 China in World History
(5) be utilitarian, not formalistic; and (6) be scientifi c, not imaginative.
China was backward, Chen argued, because it was too conservative
and gave too much respect to tradition and to the elderly. Young people
should rebel against the authority of their elders, reject the “wisdom of
the past,” and embrace independence, individualism, and freedom.
The events of 1919 suddenly brought many young people into the
camp of the critics of Chinese tradition. In analyzing the foreign and
domestic crises of the Warlord Era, students, teachers, writers, and
journalists published periodicals, short stories, poems, and propaganda
posters all blaming China’s weakness on two things: foreign imperial-
ism and the conservative Confucian culture of Chinese tradition. The
pace of change began now to accelerate.Student demonstrators surround the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing on May
4, 1919. Their protest against the Versailles Peace Treaty quickly grew into a
popular urban movement against both foreign imperialism and traditional Chinese
culture.Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries,
Minneapolis, MN