Junior History | May Fourth and the New Culture Movement: Tutor Prep Guide (Two Lines, Shandong Question, Four Errors)

2026-11-13

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Students reduce May Fourth to a student march on 4 May 1919, yet cannot explain how writers and students forced a government to refuse a treaty. The trick is to separate two lines first, culture from 1915 and diplomacy in 1919, then join them in the middle.

Objectives — Students will be able to: (1) separate the New Culture Movement (from 1915) from the May Fourth Movement (1919) and explain the causal link; (2) state three demands of the New Culture Movement and its main figures; (3) explain how the Shandong decision at Paris triggered May Fourth and what the slogan defended sovereignty within and removed traitors abroad targeted; (4) state three consequences, including the spread of vernacular writing and of Marxist ideas leading to the 1921 party founding.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
First World War	When did it end, and which side was China on?	1918; China was on the victorious side
Unequal treaties	Name one treaty and a place it ceded or leased.	Names Nanjing or Shimonoseki with a place
Early republic	Who led the Beijing government from 1912 to 1916?	Yuan Shikai, with the 1915 restoration attempt

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-3 min	Prior-knowledge check	Ask the end of the First World War, one treaty, and Yuan Shikai	Oral answers, gaps on the first line
3-7 min	Two dated events	Write 1915 Chen Duxiu founds a magazine and 4 May 1919 Beijing students march	One guess each about the link
7-19 min	Act 1: the cultural line	Three demands, four figures, live rewriting of one classical sentence	Rewrite one sentence in vernacular
19-31 min	Act 2: the diplomatic line	Twenty-One Demands, Paris, Shandong, one cause per step	Fill the timeline; explain why a victor was still humiliated
31-40 min	Act 3: May Fourth and after	4 May to the June strike and the refusal to sign, then three consequences	Two columns: government concessions and social change
40-45 min	Independent practice and exit	Hand out three items, circulate, collect errors	Work alone, hand in

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: A revolution that began in a magazine

Start with one journal: Chen Duxiu founded Youth Magazine in Shanghai in 1915, renamed New Youth the next year. By 1917 he was at Peking University, joined by Hu Shi, Lu Xun and Li Dazhao, with Cai Yuanpei making the university a base under the principle of free thought and inclusiveness.

Three demands, each with evidence:

Vernacular writing: Hu Shi published a modest proposal on literary reform in 1917; Lu Xun showed it working in a 1918 short story. Demonstrate live: rewrite yesterday I proceeded to school and met rain on the way as I went to school yesterday and it rained, then ask which one reads more easily.

Democracy and science: Chen personified them as Mr Democracy and Mr Science, arguing for debate and evidence over obedience and authority.

Critique of old ritual: chastity cults, filial absolutism and the family system came under attack, with Lu Xun leading.

Then ask why the writing had to change before the thinking could. Students usually reach the point that more people could read, which is the social base of the movement.

Rewrite a sentence live. Telling students that vernacular writing was promoted leaves almost nothing behind; doing the rewrite does.

Scene 2: Why a victor was still humiliated

Build the diplomatic line step by step:

1915 Japan presents the Twenty-One Demands to Yuan Shikai, including succession to German rights in Shandong.
1917 China declares war on Germany and sends labour corps to Europe, so it enters the winning side.
Jan 1919 the Paris conference opens; Chinese delegates ask for Shandong and for the end of extraterritoriality.
30 Apr 1919 the conference awards German rights in Shandong to Japan, citing secret understandings among Britain, France and Japan from 1917.
2 May 1919 the news reaches Beijing and university staff wire protests.

Put the core question on the board: China was a victor, so why was it carved up again? Answers in three layers: weak states have no diplomacy, secret treaties outrank open ones, and the powers needed Japan against Soviet Russia. The first layer is enough; the second is excellent.

Weak states have no diplomacy cannot stay a slogan. Prove it with the demands and the secret understandings, or students will not believe it.

Scene 3: From march to refusal

4 May: students from thirteen Beijing institutions gather at Tiananmen, march to the legation quarter, are turned back, and head for the house of a pro-Japanese minister, carrying the slogan defend sovereignty abroad, remove traitors at home. Abroad means Shandong; at home means the three officials blamed for the loans.

June: workers strike and merchants shut in Shanghai, widening the movement beyond students. The government releases those arrested and dismisses the three officials.

28 June 1919: the Chinese delegation refuses to sign the Treaty of Versailles, the first time modern China said no to the powers.

Then three consequences, each with an example: nationalism rises and boycotts follow; vernacular writing enters textbooks in 1920; socialist ideas spread and the party is founded in 1921.

Close with a question: was May Fourth a patriotic protest or an intellectual revolution? The defensible answer is both, because the diplomatic crisis carried the cultural movement from the study to the street.

The two lines must join in this act: the cultural movement supplied language and ideas, the diplomatic crisis supplied a crowd and a stage.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Separating the lines	Which movement does a 1915 magazine launch belong to?	Check year and figure: 1915 is New Culture, not May Fourth	New Culture Movement; May Fourth is 1919
Causal chain	How did Paris lead to May Fourth?	Decision, then news, then protest, then march	Shandong awarded to Japan, news in early May, university protests, 4 May march
Slogan reading	What are the two targets of the slogan?	Abroad means sovereignty, at home means the three officials	Shandong sovereignty abroad; the three pro-Japanese officials at home
Classifying effects	Which area does the spread of vernacular writing belong to?	Sort into culture, politics and society	Culture; primary schools adopted it in 1920

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check to teach: ask how a weak China dared to refuse to sign in 1919. The answer is that public pressure gave the delegates backing, and the refusal did not return Shandong at once, which took the 1922 Washington conference. Separating a symbolic win from a material one is the main thinking skill in this chapter.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
1. What were the two slogans of the New Culture Movement and who coined them?	Mr Democracy and Mr Science, coined by Chen Duxiu	Can they say what each stands for?
2. What was the immediate trigger of May Fourth?	The Paris decision to give German rights in Shandong to Japan	Can they separate trigger from deeper causes?
3. What did the Chinese delegation do on 28 June 1919?	Refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles	Do they recall a refusal rather than a signature?

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Folding the two movements into one	The May Fourth Movement began in 1915 with New Youth.	1915 starts the New Culture Movement; May Fourth is 1919. Keep the two years apart.
Reducing May Fourth to students	It was just students marching, nothing to do with workers.	The June strike and shop closures are what forced concessions. Without them the source of pressure is missing.
Assuming the refusal returned Shandong	China refused in 1919, so Shandong came back.	The refusal was symbolic; Shandong returned after the 1922 Washington conference.
Reading vernacular writing as abolishing characters	The movement wanted to scrap Chinese characters.	The mainstream demand was vernacular instead of classical prose. Abolishing characters was a radical minority view, not the programme.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

History paper index (S1 to S6) — Choose a republic-era paper here and do questions 1 to 3
S3 History: First World War and the Treaty of Versailles (questions 1 to 3) — Do questions 1 to 3 and watch how the settlement treated victors and losers
S3 History: Industrial Revolution (question 2) — Do question 2 and compare technology reshaping society with words reshaping thought

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Date and trigger of May Fourth.	4 May 1919; the Shandong decision at Paris	A wrong trigger means the diplomatic line needs re-teaching
Name one demand of the New Culture Movement.	Vernacular writing, democracy and science, or critique of old ritual	No demand named means the three demands need re-teaching
Name one consequence of May Fourth.	Rising nationalism, spread of vernacular writing, or spread of Marxist ideas	Students only saying students were patriotic is not enough

09 Tutor FAQ

How do I state the link between the two movements in one sentence?

New Culture supplied language and ideas from 1915, May Fourth supplied a crowd and a stage in 1919, and they overlap in that year. When an exam asks for the relationship, answer that the cultural movement became a mass movement because of a diplomatic crisis.

How much detail on Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi and Lu Xun?

One item each: Chen founded New Youth and named Democracy and Science; Hu promoted vernacular writing; Lu Xun demonstrated it in fiction. Everything else can wait for senior secondary.

Should the 1921 party founding be taught?

Mention it as a consequence of the spread of socialist ideas after May Fourth, but do not expand. Junior students only need the sequence, ideas spread faster after 1919 and a party followed in 1921.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.