Struggling For Legitimacy: The Evolution Of Youth Day During The Period Of Republic China

It had been 20 years since the May 4th Movement to the born of the "May 4th" Youth Day in the year of 1939. The date of the Youth Day was not determine yet; it was changed 5 years later. The Chongqing National Government changed the day from "May 4th" to "March 29th", which was the memorial day of the Huanghuagang Uprising. Meanwhile, the government of Wang Jingwei also established the Youth Day on May 5th, which was the memorial day of Sun Yat-sen became Extraordinary President. In this way, there were three kinds of Youth Day festival in China. After the Anti-Japanese War, the struggling for legitimacy between the "May 4th" Youth Day and the "March 29th" Youth Day appeared. Basing on existing research, I tried to make a comprehensive and systemic research on the Youth Day during the Period of Republic China, in order to unearth the deep reason of the date change of the Youth Day.The first chapter introduces the constructive process of "May 4th" Youth Day. In other words, it is about the reason that "May 4th" became the most reasonable Youth Day. The chapter will be divided into two parts. The first part emphasis on introducing the Youth's performance in the May 4th movement, including the number of participants, the important role played by them, political leaders and famous scholars'evaluations. The second part mainly introduces the commemoration after the "May 4th" era and the constructive process of Youth Day as a political symbol.The second chapter is about the establishment of "May 4th" Youth Day. Since 1939, CPC and KMT have set "May 4th" as the Youth Day.It not only symbolized the birth of the Youth Day, but also foreshadowed the beginning of confrontation and fight. When the Youth Day was established it was the essential period of Anti-Japanese War, so earlier Youth Day's purpose was against the aggression from Japanese, and encouraged youth to join the army and wipe out the traitors. Later, the memorial theme of the Youth Day was transferred into "one political party, one leader and one doctrine" by KMT, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling youth. The May 4th movement afterwards has been criticized fiercely more and more, so changing the date of Youth Day is inevitably.The third chapter introduces the change of the Youth Day and the dispute. In 1943, the Youth Day was changed from "May 4th" to "March 29th", which is the festival of Huanghuagang Uprising. As a consequence, it led to lots of controversies. Meanwhile, the Puppet regime also set up the "May 5th" as their own Youth Day. Thus, three "Youth Day" coexisted at that time. After KMT changed the date of Youth Day, they paid much attention to it and held the first commemoration for "March 29th" Youth Day.The fourth chapter focuses on introducing the confrontation between "May 4th" and "March 29th" which were commemorated by different political groups, and the fight for the political symbol from these different groups. This chapter began with the "May 4th" event in Guangzhou which occurred in 1946, and then would introduce the "March 29th" commemoration in KMT controlled area and the "May 4th" memorial in liberated area in detail. By comparison, this chapter would introduce the different molds, which were shaped by the different groups, to the political memory of the Youth Day, and then the process of striving for the legitimacy. In this process, this chapter would give special attention to 1948.The theories of history, anthropology and politics were utilized to analyze the historical process of the establishment and contention of the Youth Day in this thesis. When young students representative of the national citizens commemorated the May 4th movement, they appeared as a political community on the stage of history. Consequently, a common psychological group was formed, which had the irreplaceable identification of the May 4th movement. Therefore, it seems natural and reasonable that "May 4th" is made the Youth Day. For many founders and important members in the early age of the CPC, "May 4th" must be an important piece of their own political memory as they are the leaders and participants of this crucial movement. So the CPC has put much on this movement ever since its birth and finally made it the Youth day 20 years later. Nevertheless, the KMT made "March 29th" the Youth Day on account of it represents the political memory of Huanghugang Uprising which is belonged to the KMT exclusively. Even the Youth Day of "May 5th" decided by Wang Jingwei is the proportion of KMT's political memory. From this perspective, the CPC and KMT made the same choice from the angle of their own political memory to decide the date of Youth Day respectively in order to strive for legitimacy. Although consensus could be achieved temporarily, conflicts still inevitable. This tortuous trajectory existed all the time because they strived for legitimacy and orthodoxy by the choice of the Youth Day. And the Youth Day was changed for this reason. The reason of drastic struggling for the date of the Youth Day was that each political group wanted to declare the legality and legitimacy of its regime by establishing the Youth Day which was in accord with its own political memory, and so as the reason of the date of Youth Day changed.