The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919 (Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley)

Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley

by Vera Schwarcz

It is widely accepted, both inside China and in the West, that contemporary Chinese history begins with the May Fourth Movement. Vera Schwarcz's imaginative new study provides China scholars and historians with an analysis of what makes that event a turning point in the intellectual, spiritual, cultural and political life of twentieth-century China.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 1986

About the author

Vera Schwarcz (born 1947) (Chinese name: Chinese: 舒衡哲)is Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. Her BA was from Vassar College, with a MA from Yale, where she studied with Jonathan Spence, a MAA from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. From 1979 to 1980, she studied at Peking University as part the first group of American students admitted after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China. In addition to works of history, Schwarcz writes poetry and novellas.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. Great read.

[Zhijing Jin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it in a batch with:
- On liberty / 群己權界論
- Evolution and Ethics / 天演论

[Clayton Brannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Only problem I had in book was author would use a Chinese word and give English definition then would continue with using Chinese word instead of English in rest of book. Unless you have the ability to remember what these words mean it is my advise to write down what they mean so you have a reference to their definition because the author may use the word again a hundred pages later. The other is the refusal to use the more modern names for people such as Chaing Kaishek or Sun Yatsen and instead use the names Jiang Jieshi and Sun Zhongshan. Other than these small problems the book overall is a very well written scholarly account of the May Fourth Movement and its aftermath.