The May 4th Movement

Modern Chinese Literature begins with the May 4th Movement. Well, that’s according to the orthodox understanding of Chinese literature promoted by the CCP in China. Either way, May 4th, 1919 was a turning point both in Chinese society and in Chinese literature.

It was during and after this date that Lu Xun wrote some of his most important pieces of fiction. Those works came together in a book Warcry (呐喊) which is one of the monumental works in Chinese literature. The preface to that book, our subject today, is the most talked about part of that work. Today, on the 100th anniversary of the May 4th movement, we think about Lu Xun, his preface to Outcry and how we still hear echos of the work today.