| During the May 4th period, there appeared numerous mass organizations. Some enlightened Shanxi-born Beijing students established the Co-Advance Community in Beijing. The society derived its name from the semimonthly journal advancing, initiated in October, 1921 in Beijing, and aimed to"promote civilization and advocate social transformation". The community was expanded in October 1922 so as to establish a democratic Shanxi, relying on the intellectuals, the peasant class, business class and the working class and other oppressed classes from Shanxi, taking the advantage of propaganda, their allies and the masses campaigns to carry out a comprehensive reform in the fields such as education, culture, customs, politics, economy, and so forth. Among them, the progress and development of the enlightened Shanxi-born Beijing students, the situation transformation in Shanxi, and the spread of new ideas and civilization of the West serves as the foundation for the reform ideology of the society; and then the local branches of the community helped their ideas spread more widely. The activities of the social transformation of the community experienced a "reform-to-revolution" evolution: from struggle for an autonomous government of Shaanxi (during the period, it was also put forward the "Knowledge Class Regency") to the determination of establishing a democratic Shaanxi. The fields of social transformation expanded from the educational and political aspects to all-round social transformation including politics, economy, culture, education, social customs, and so on. Their methods of social transformation changed from the "innovation" means like propagandizing, joining the allies and mass movements to the "national revolutionary transformation." Its road of social transformation of democratic "innovation" had also been replaced by that of "national revolution." Such changes were the features of the social climate in as whole reflected in the community at that time; in particular, it was the inevitable result of the early influence by the community members who had long been inclined to join the Communist Party of China after accepting the guidance of the CPC. The ideas of the Co-Advance Community were not only inspiring vision reflecting the pursuit of all the members in the community but the treasure from their explorations in the society. Under the guidance of social transformation ideology, the Co-Advance Community conducted a series of activities aimed at social transformation. Its guiding ideas developed from trying to establish a democratic Shanxi to establishing a new democratic China through "national revolution". It made a great difference to the Shanxi, to Beijing, to the whole country and its own members as well. The community made significant contributions to promoting modern civilization in Shanxi, and to the establishment as well as early development of the CPC in Shanxi. |
