China's May Fourth Movement: New Narratives and Perspectives

This book looks at China’s May Fourth Movement and how it has been contextualised in modern Chinese history. Tracing the roots of the movement and of modern Chinese literary and intellectual traditions, the book analyses how the movement transformed ideas, culture, and social practices in the country.

The volume presents a critical in-depth study of the May Fourth Movement from interdisciplinary perspectives. With essays written by scholars and experts from India, China, and the West, it discusses concepts and themes such as nationalism; the citizen and revolutionary morality in the late Qing dynasty as well as Lu Xun’s struggle with the aporetic temporalities of capitalist modernity; the May Fourth spirit and the Communist Party of China; the birth of the ‘New Woman’; and the literature, cinema, and art produced during the movement. It also examines how the waves created by the movement in Chinese culture and society continue to influence and shape events and thoughts in contemporary times.

This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Chinese Studies, Chinese history, Asian Studies, Asian history, political history, and cultural history.

Sabaree Mitra is Professor of Chinese in Jawaharlal Nehru University, an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, and a member of the Editorial Board of China Report. Her teaching and research have spanned the fields of contemporary Chinese literature and criticism, Chinese cultural history, gender issues, and India–China cultural relations and regional interaction. She was the Chairperson of the Indian Expert Group that compiled the Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts (2014) under the aegis of the Governments of India and China. In 2017, she was honoured with the Special Book Award of China for her contributions in introducing, translating, and publishing books on Chinese culture as well as in promoting cultural exchanges.