by Qin Xiaoying

    BEIJING, May 2 -- It is 90 years since the May Fourth Movement. It was not just a tsunami-like social movement, but also contained seething spiritual and cultural currents. In these many years, the discussions and contentions over it have never ceased.

    The movement is not an obsolete event. It is still remembered in people's contentions and reflections after every historic transition. Generation after generation, Chinese people have showed endless interest in the historic destination of the figures active in the movement. People are still using May Fourth as a mirror to reflect their lives in reality.

    To say it is still alive, the most important reason is that it founded an inviolable political principle for the society of modern China. The participants of the movement awakened hundreds of millions of Chinese people to the enthusiastic patriotic spirit, and achieved unprecedented social mobilization with its incisive slogan "defend our sovereignty and punish the traitors". Because it was such an unprecedented universal and profound social movement, it not only became a milestone in China's modern history, but also obtained long-term meanings that last until today.

    The movement set political principles for the Chinese society and all Chinese politicians, and drew a clear line for the Chinese public to judge the performance of all the political figures, factions, parties and government. The enshrined political principles include to resolutely defend and maintain the national sovereignty and unification, and never to tolerate the existence of any force or activity aiming at secession from the country. On the other hand, the domestic politics must follow and practice democracy, (though there are different understandings on democracy), and should not allow despotism.

    "Patriotism" and "democracy" were the national axioms set by the movement. Our 90 years of history has proven, whoever did not follow these axioms, no matter they were warlords, conspirators or politicos, they would perish. From the Beiyang warlords to the Gang of Four, there was no exception. On the contrary, anyone, including the big political figures,who cherished and protected the nation's sovereignty and unification and sincerely venerated and practiced democracy, would be recognized by the Chinese public as qualified statesman.

    To say the movement is still alive is also because it put forward the ideal of "science" and "democracy", for which the Chinese people are still striving. May Fourth was a patriotic movement. However, it was not a blind xenophobic movement, but a movement combining patriotism and learning from foreign countries, and discerning between the invasion and humiliation from the foreign powers and the introduction of advanced Western culture. The protagonists of the movement not only advocated for learning from foreign countries courageously and selectively, but also opposed copying without digesting.

    Lu Xun, a famous writer at the time, clearly and succinctly illustrated this attitude in his masterpiece "Na Lai Zhu Yi" (meaning taking whatever indiscriminately). He acknowledged the advanced civilization in the world, and calmly dissected and criticized the traits of the Chinese nation. Like Lu Xun, the movement held on to a rational attitude to learn from the West, and hence wrote "science", which was rare in ancient Chinese society, and "democracy", which had never flourished on China's soil, onto the banner that guided the nation to advance.

    The May Fourth Movement still stirs unfinished contentions. When we refer to May Fourth, it is inevitable to judge its impact on the traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism. The impact made the critics nowadays doubt and criticize the cultural orientation of the movement, and even hold negative views on it.

    Of course, how to deal with traditional culture could be a criterion to assess the May Fourth Movement, but it cannot be the only measure to judge the historic event. It was necessary for May Fourth, as a reformist movement, to assault Confucianism, which had dominated China for two millennia. When the corrupted governments and unscrupulous dictators kowtowed to the Confucianism, and the warlord authority, which ceded China's territory to the foreign powers, sought to use Confucianism to fetter the people, how could the protagonists of the movement as well as the patriotic youth not intensively criticize and shatter the Confucianism which argued for order above all?

    In fact, the criticism of Confucianism at the time was not to abandon the excellent part of the traditional culture, but to express their worry and discontent to the spiritless Zeitgeist at the time, and to voice the praise to and longing for the freedom of individuals.

    Even today, in the 21st century, we still need to liberate our minds. We should behave like the youth in the May Fourth Movement, to "speak courageously, act bravely, and forget all the gains and losses", as advocated by Lu Xun. The freedom of individuals is a prerequisite for creative thinking and a dynamic society. To assess the May Fourth Movement from the perspective of spiritual enlightenment and emancipation, we can say that it is not merely a historic event, but a living legacy for the Chinese nation today and in future.

    The author is a researcher with the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.

    (Source: China Daily)