The Rise of Political Intellectuals in Modern China: May Fourth Societies and the Roots of Mass-Party Politics

The May Fourth movement (1915-1923) is widely considered a watershed in the history of modern China. This book is a social history of cultural and political radicals based in China's most important hinterland city at this pivotal time, Wuhan. Current narratives of May Fourth focus on the ideological development of intellectuals in the seaboard metropoles of Beijing and Shanghai. And although scholars have pointed to the importance of the many cultural-political societies of the period, they have largely neglected to examine these associations, seeing them only as seedbeds of Chinese communism and its leaders, like Mao Zedong. This book, by contrast, portrays the everyday life of May Fourth activists in Wuhan in cultural-political societies founded by local teacher and journalist Yun Daiying (1895-1931). The book examines the ways by which radical politics developed in hinterland urban centers, from there into a nation wide movement, which ultimately provided the basis for the emergence of mass political parties, namely the Nationalist Party (Guomindang) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The book's focus on organizations, everyday life, and social networks provides a novel interpretation of where mechanisms of historical change are located. The book also highlights the importance of print culture in the provinces. It demonstrates how provincial print-culture combined with small, local organizations to create a political movement. The vantage point of Wuhan demonstrates that May Fourth radicalism developed in a dialogue between the coastal metropoles of Beijing and Shanghai and hinterland urban centers. The book therefore charts the way in which seeds of political change grew from individuals, through local organizations into a nation-wide movement, and finally into mass-party politics and subsequently revolution. The book thus connects everyday experiences of activists with the cultural-political ferment which gave rise to both the Chinese Communist party and the Nationalist Party.

About the Author :
Shakhar Rahav is a lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Haifa. His work has been published in Chinese, Hebrew, and English in The China Quarterly and Twentieth Century China.

Review :
"In sum, using Yun Diying as an example, the author has successfully explained how grassroots organizations and activities built the foundation for revolutionary parties, and his ethnographic study provides ample evidence for this....[T]his book is very important for students of intellectuals and Chinese politics. Current intellectuals desiring reform and revolution have many lessons to learn from it."--Zhidong Hao, Journal of Chinese Political Science "The most fascinating sections of this monograph are those that deal with the sociability of intellectual networks. Rahav recreates the highly idealistic and often endearingly pompous world of students and intellectuals to great effect....[A] thought provoking and original analysis, that will make a valuable addition to both Chinese and intellectual history."--Chris Courtney, Reviews in History "Rahav raises theoretical problems deserving further research....[T]his monograph is a major contribution, adding not just detail and nuance but an important new perspective on the era."--Peter Zarrow, American Historical Review "[I]t is refreshing to read Rahav's account of Yun's political activism..."--Tze-ki Hon, Journal of Chinese History "Among the notable strengths of this book is Rahav's thoughtful interrogation of sources such as Yun's diary (e.g., pp. 48-49) and careful recounting of how Yun graduated from social clubs to political parties. By rejecting historical teleology, Rahav offers readers a model of political leadership based on intimate relationships between intellectuals and the masses, rather than a model of confrontational struggle as per the Cultural Revolution. By examining sociability rather than ideology, Rahav explains the appeal of mass politics and the formation of social cohesion across diverse ideas in the May Fourth movement."--Margaret Mih Tillman, The Journal of Asian Studies "[T]he volume offers new perspectives into the complicated process leading from New Culture activism to party politics. By focusing on everyday life and associational matrixes, Shakhar Rahav also produces a fresh reinterpretation of May Fourth political mobilization and its legacy....Rahav provides a new geographic scope to May Fourth historiography....Rahav produces a sophisticated interpretation on how ideas and social networks interacted, shaping each other in a dialectical relationship, and how national politics evolved through the mutual imbrication of old networks based on personal relationships and new ones based on the abstract and impersonal contacts negotiated via the radical press."--Fabio Lanza, The Chinese Historical Review "Shakhar Rahav's book manages to combine intellectual and social history in an eloquent way that illuminates the entire landscape of modern China. By refocusing our attention away from epicenters of political action, we are enveloped in the print culture and youthful activism of Yun Daiying, a key figure in both Communist and Nationalist politics. Readers will come away with a fresh appreciation of the subtle historical forces that shaped the upheaval which culminated in the reign of Mao Zedong."--Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University "Shakhar Rahav takes a novel approach to the student-led May 4th Movement of 1919, an iconic struggle for change. Rather than focusing on Beijing or Shanghai, he takes a close look at a significant provincial setting and zeroes in on the life story of an important but understudied individual. Perhaps most importantly, he provides a fine-grained look at patterns of sociability within the new organizations students formed and the way a different sort of mass politics began to emerge. The result is a fresh and engaging account of a crucial turning point in modern Chinese history. Finished before idealistic young Hong Kong activists garnered headlines late in 2014, the book makes especially compelling reading while student-led protests in that city are still fresh in our minds."--Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of Student Protests in Twentieth-Century China and hina in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know� "Rahav's study de-centers our understanding of May Fourth radicalism by training our attention on the 'hinterland metropolis' of Wuhan and by making the case that young intellectuals there emerged as political actors through socialization within intimate small group settings rather than through the mechanical embrace of prescriptive, path-defining ideologies."--Timothy Weston, author of The Power of Position: Beijing University Intellectuals and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929