The Youth Day of China: the May 4th Movement and its important role in Chinese history
We know that June 1st is known as the International Children’s Day, but did you know that China has a special Youth Day?
The Youth Day is celebrated every year on May 4th, in order to celebrate the May 4th Movement, an important event in Chinese history. How so? Well, the movement was in the year 1919, when the Versailles Convention was held to decide the peace treaty of WWI. China, as part of the Entente and a great contributor of labour forces digging the trenches in Europe, was initially promised the return of all German colonies in China, including Shandong and Tianjin. But as the Convention commenced, the other Asian Entente participant opposed such proposals - which was Japan. The Japanese proposed instead that all German profits in East Asia be inherited by themselves. And the powers holding the convention - the British, the French and the Americans - after deliberation decided Japan is a more valuable ally, and followed their proposal. Member of the Chinese delegate, famous diplomat V.K. Wellington Koo, recorded the series of events to commence in his memoir, including how they visited all the powers in hope of finding justice. The news soon got back to China, and the population was infuriated. There was multiple protests around the nation, and the most famous one was on May 4th, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protesters were mainly students of Peking University, and many foremen of the Communist Party of China, including Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Zhang Guotao and Zhou Enlai were participants. They held up slogans like “Sovereignty abroad and Clarity domestically” and “We will struggle to the death for the return of Qingdao”.
Of course, the Europeans didn’t care much for that, but the May 4th Movement went down in history as “a great anti-Imperialist and patriotic movement”, quoting Chairman Mao. It was the beginning of the “Neo-democratic Revolution”, differentiating from the “old democratic revolution” by the participation of communists. The May 4th movement laid the foundations for the Communists’ popularity among intellectuals, and it later also developed to be the first movement in which Chinese workers made an entrance onto the political stage.
In 1949, the Communist government named May 4th as the annual Youth Day, and the Chinese teenagers have been celebrating it since.
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