Two Social Movements in China: Foreign Foes, Critiques of Tradition and Collective Commitments

The paper reports on a theoretical and historical research project comparing two contrasting social movements that shaped China’s immediate and long-term futures, the post-World War I May Fourth Movement and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. The May Fourth Movement grew out of the betrayal of China by western powers at the Versailles Conference, and was the culmination of a renegotiation of Chinese indigenous traditions. It led to political reform and intellectual strengthening. The Cultural Revolution can similarly be situated in China’s international isolation during the Vietnam War but rather than a popular expression of future-orientated optimism it was a party-led mobilization of inexperienced young people directed to internal factionalism. It led to chaos, lost opportunities and isolationist cultural closure. The paper explores the characters of these very different movements and also considers some similarities which they share. One common element that will be developed in the analysis in addition to international context and qualified rejection of indigenous traditions is the possibility of characterizing each movement in terms of representative collective commitments. By focusing on the macro-level commitments internal to each movement the paper will relate the movement-level engagements of participants and their psychic investment in socio-cultural and political development in these two quite different but crucial phases of Chinese history.