May 4th Movement
May 4, 1919 (in a broader sense refers to the period 1915 - 1921 called the "New Culture Movement")
· Anti-imperialist cultural and political movement
· Protesting Chinese government's response to the treaty of Versailles allowing Japan to receive territories in Shandong
· Sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism
· Shift towards political mobilization and populist base
· A focus on nation building
· Leftists and rightists, nationalists (Chiang Kai Shek) opposed
· Mao Zedong believed it was a stage leading toward revolution
- Leading up to May 4th movement, school songs had begun to be sung at political rallies and other civic gatherings serving as means for expression of nationalism
- May 4th reformers wanted to make new national music --> to utilize indigenous musical elements (such as pentatonic melodies) as markers of ethnicity within a predominantly Western harmonic structure
- May 4th era musicians thought Chinese instruments were deficien