What Does World War I Mean to China?

The alarming awareness of the country’s peril prompted the young people to seriously think over the question raised by the New Culture Movement advocated by the New Youth magazine, and which ideology should be followed to save the country. The May Fourth Moment made Marxism an irreversible trend in China. As a demonstration staged by a multitude against imperialism and reactionary warlords, it marked the beginning of China’s new-democratic revolution. Two years later, China’s proletarian party, the Communist Party of China, was founded in 1921.

In January 1919, China’s diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference directly triggered the May Fourth Movement staged by students in Beijing against imperialism and feudalism.