---
node: may_fourth_movement
type: event
slug: may_fourth_movement
title: "May Fourth Movement"
lead: "On May 4, 1919, students in Beijing demonstrated against the Paris Peace Conference decision to transfer Germany's Shandong concessions to Japan rather than return them to China. The protests grew into a movement that politicized a generation."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
---

## What happened

Beijing students took to the streets on May 4, 1919. Protests, strikes, and boycotts spread to other cities, and China ultimately refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

## Background

The Paris Peace Conference had decided to transfer Germany's concessions in Shandong to Japan instead of returning them to China. The movement is inseparable from the broader New Culture Movement: the promotion of vernacular written Chinese (baihua) and the slogans "Mr. Science" and "Mr. Democracy" associated with Chen Duxiu.

## Consequences

A generation was politicized. The movement's intellectual currents fed both the reorganized Kuomintang and the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.