The May Fourth Movement .... China in 1919 ... on the wireless today

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the violent protests in China on 4th May 1919 over the nation's humiliation in the Versailles Treaty after World War One. 

Tiananmen Square on 4 May 1919

China had supported the Allies, sending workers to dig trenches, and expected to regain the German colonies on its territory, but the Allies and China's leaders chose to give that land to Japan instead. 

To protestors, this was a travesty and reflected much that was wrong with China, with its corrupt leaders, division by warlords, weakness before Imperial Europe and outdated ideas and values. 

The movement around 4th May has since been seen as a watershed in China’s development in the 20th century, not least as some of those connected with the movement went on to found the Communist Party of China a few years later.

With, Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford, Elisabeth Forster, Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Southampton and

Song-Chuan Chen, Associate Professor in History at the University of Warwick

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture;  Tiananmen Square on 4 May 1919. Around 3,000 students from 13 universities in Beijing gathered there to oppose Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles which handover a German possession in China to Japan (Shandong Problem). This officially sparked the May Fourth Movement.

*The May Fourth Movement, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm