Modern Democratic Aspirations Of The Value Orientation Of The May 4th Movement "the Plight Of Political Democratization In China

As a foreign civilization, democracy conception burgeoned in modern China with Western culture spreading. However, it had the color of pragmatism, which was brought into an aim to pursue the prosperity of country. The pioneers had strong worrying mentality and urgent reform psychology in modern democratic movements. From late Qing Dynasty to the May 4th Movement, they hoped to practice democratic system to make country prosperous when they faced the nation in peril. They didn't understand the connotation of democracy completely, though they pursued it earnestly. They regarded it as a tool and means to realize their ideals. The pragmatism value standard decreased the meaning of democratic system. It was a hidden danger to the disintegration of the Congress in early Republic of China.The evolution of democracy showed us that safeguarding individual rights and limiting state rights are the value standard of democracy. However, it was the leading ideology to strengthen state rights and limit individual rights in modern China. Traditional political culture dominated person's thinking way and value standard. This provided spiritual pillar and theory basis for the feudal restoring power. With the collapse of Yuan Shikai's totalitarianism and the restart of Congress, the opportunity was coming for realizing political democratization in modern China. With the transformation of current political situation in and outside China, the way of Chinese democratization changed its direction. After Opium War, advanced Chinese regarded parliamentary as ideal to realize political democratization. After the May 4th Movement, political civilization of the West and parliamentary were met with Chinese' spurn. The Chinese intellectual regarded freedom and civil rights as essential cores to realizedemocracy, but these became the spurn targets now. The words of freedom and civil rights became derogatory terms. From then on Chinese political democratization got into perplexed and tortuous process.