Study On The Image Construction Of The May 4th Movement Of The Kuomintang(1919-1937)

The Kuomintang(KMT),as a political party organization that emerged in the late Qing Dynasty,its political activity has lasted more than 100 years,which has built a political legacy and memories that belonged only to the KMT itself.Among these historical events,there were political movements,in which the KMT was in a leading position or initiated independently,such as a series of armed conflicts led by Sun Yat-sen in the late Qing Dynasty,and political activities such as the Second Revolution after the establishment of the Republic of China.In addition,there were also movements that the KMT was in a secondary position,partially participating or not even engaging at all.The May Fourth Movement is one of latter one.However,after all,the May Fourth Movement was an important political movement.Therefore,when the KMT reviewed and summarized its political activities,the evaluation of the May Fourth Movement made by KMT becomes necessary and valuable to reflect on its own interests.The May Fourth Movement was a political movement that students,workers,and businessmen jointly participated.The major cause was the national crisis resulted from the Chinese delegation's diplomatic defeat at the Paris Peace Conference,which led to the loss of Shandong's rights and interests after the end of the World War I.Its impact is extremely far-reaching.It not only rejected Japanese's opportunity of manipulating and encroaching upon rights of Shandong Province,but also promoted emerging political forces,such as young students and workers on the political stage;it accelerated the spread of new ideas,especially socialist ideology in China;it boosted new party organizations to emerge since then.The KMT,which had an active role on the stage of Chinese history during that time,was inevitably affected by the May Fourth Movement and had responded accordingly.As a political party,the KMT would always develop its own comment on the May Fourth Movement,without following the opinions of other political influencers or individuals.When the KMT evaluated and even commemorated the May Fourth Movement,the memories,comments and commemorations are based on the image of the movement depicted by KMT itself.Therefore the image of the May Fourth Movement from KMT's perspective is not always fixed,but constantly adjusting,along with the changes of the KMT's identity and the changes of its actual political interests.In general,from the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937,the KMT's depiction of its May Fourth Movement image has generally experienced three stages: 1)1919-1927: KMT as a revolutionary political party against Beijing government.During this period,the KMT,in order to gain support from the public,enticed students to join the KMT to participate in the National Revolution.The KMT depicted the image of the May Fourth Movement in a very noble way,calling it the Patriotic Movement,the Civil Rights Movement,and the New Cultural Movement.It affirmed and praised all aspects of the May Fourth Movement.2)1927-1931: The early period of the Nanjing National Government established by the KMT.During this period,on the one hand,the identity of the KMT's political party actually transitioned from the revolutionary party into the opposite,a ruling party.Therefore,some forms of political activities such as street demonstrations and strikes from previous period no longer met the needs of the KMT.It even threatened the ruling authority of the KMT.On the other hand,the political environment of the Nanjing National Government was still very unstable.The hostile political forces still existed and posed a threat to the KMT regime.Therefore,the KMT was still reluctant to abandon the branding of its own as a revolutionary party,attempting to continuously attract support from the public.Therefore,during this period,the May Fourth image depicted by the KMT has undergone great changes: firstly,it continued to recognize the May Fourth Movement as a great patriotic movement and new cultural movement.Secondly,it also accused the May Fourth Movement of being an incomplete patriotic movement,a cultural movement that overly emphasized on tearing down but missing out on construction.3)1931-1937: From the Mukden Incident in 1931 to the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937.During this period,the domestic hostile forces had weakened,and the national crisis has intensified,becoming the most urgent issue in China at that time.The KMT no longer needs to rely too much on the image of May Fourth Movement to seek support for itself.Therefore,the image of the May Fourth Movement depicted by the KMT during this period further changed.Except for being recognized as a patriotic movement,it no longer served any revolutionary significance.However,the depiction of the KMT's May Fourth image is by no means purely chronological.The depiction of the May Fourth image of the KMT at all stages is not definite like being black or white,or being completely opposite.Even in various periods,the image of the May Fourth Movement constructed by the KMT is not fixed and is full of contradictions and chaos,for example,when determining whether to depict the image of the May Fourth Movement as the movement following Three People's Principles(Sanminism),and whether to depict the image of the May Fourth Movement as a new cultural movement or a movement destroying the national cultural movement.During each of past periods of time,the KMT is always full of contradictions internally,unable to reach a consensus,and naturally unable to construct a unified image of the May Fourth Movement on behave of the party as a whole.In conclusion,there are two major traits of the KMT's May Fourth image depiction work during the period of 1919-1937.Firstly,it has a segmented-by-time feature: in different historical periods,the May Fourth Movement image made by the KMT showed different styles and characteristics.Secondly,it is characterized by specific contradictions and chaos,and the KMT has been unable to construct a clear image of the May Fourth Movement in all periods.This study will demonstrate the idea based on key historical materials including "Republic of China Daily" and "Weekly Review",which were established during the period that the KMT as the opposition party,the "Central Daily","Revolutionary Pioneer",and "Political Training",which were the KMT official government publications during its ruling time,and relevant newspaper publications,relevant figures' archived profiles and historical data.The methodology and purpose was to fully understand the qualitative evaluation of the May Fourth Movement during this period,to restore the image of the May Fourth Movement depicted by the KMT as comprehensively as possible,to explore the characteristics and reasons behind the KMT's construction work of the May Fourth Movement image,and to deliver a valuable deep dive analysis.