China is poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. This book goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world. Preface x List of Illustrations xiii Chronology xv Pronunciation, Transliterations, and Names xviii PART I: SHOCK Flashpoint: 4 May 1919: The Making of a New China 3(38) Why was May Fourth Important? 12(14) The Fall of the Chinese Empire 26(9) Uneasy Birth: The Chinese Republic 35(6) A Tale of Two Cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and the May Fourth Generation 41(28) Beijing: Intellectual Centre of the Movement 43(6) Shanghai: China's Modern Challenge 49(5) People: The May Fourth Generation 54(11) Subcultures 65(4) Experiments in Happiness: Life and Love in New Culture China 69(33) New Classes, New Opportunities 70(6) Print, Commerce, and Culture 76(1) Love, Labour, and Liberty 77(3) Ask Taofen! 80(10) The May Fourth Entrepreneur 90(3) Saving the Nation, Making a Profit 93(6) End of an Era? 99(3) Goodbye Confucius: New Culture, New Politics 102(53) Iconoclasm 108(2) Goodbye Confucius? 110(7) China's Road to Nationalism 117(6) Internationalism, Cosmopolitism, and Nationalism 123(4) Looking East in Europe 127(2) Not Just West and East: Thinking Beyond Europe 129(4) Japan's Promise, Japan's Menace 133(1) Party Politics 134(1) The Communists 135(3) The Nationalists 138(4) Nationalists and Communists, United and Divided 142(4) The Questions of Woman 146(3) Conclusion: Goodbye May Fourth? 149(6) PART II: AFTERSHOCK A Land of Death: Darkness over China 155(45) China Changes Shape, 1931--7 157(6) The Choices of the May Fourth Generation 163(4) China Falls Apart, 1937--45 167(11) War and Confrontation 178(3) The New World 181(9) The Cold War 190(4) The Great Leap Forward 194(4) Conclusion: May Fourth in Abeyance 198(2) Tomorrow the Whole World Will Be Red: The Cultural Revolution and the Distortions of May Fourth 200(44) Considering the Cultural Revolution 207(3) What was the Cultural Revolution? 210(4) The Cold War and the Cultural Revolution 214(3) Life and Death during the Red Guard Period 217(9) Changing the Guard 226(4) May Fourth or Not? 230(3) The Cold War and the Romance of Technology 233(5) Divisions: Red, Black, Men, Women 238(2) Conclusion: A Strange May Fourth 240(4) Ugly Chinamen and Dead Rivers: Reform and the `New May Fourth' 244(41) The Late Cold War 246(2) Life and Liberty in the `New Era' 248(7) Xiahai: `Jumping into the Sea' of the New Society 255(3) What Sort of Crisis? 258(2) The Culture Fever Debates 260(2) The Ugly Chinaman and Hesbang 262(7) Echoes of May Fourth: The Different Crises 269(3) Tian'anmen and the End of an Era 272(8) The Nature of the New Era: Towards Chinese Democracy? 280(5) Learning to Let Go: The May Fourth Legacy in the New Millennium 285(30) The Two Cities Revisited 289(6) Coping with the Past 295(6) New Thinking 301(4) Across the Straits 305(3) Searching for a New Story 308(7) Guide to Further Reading 315(10) Notes 325(20) Index 345