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Article: A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A Bitter Revolution China's Struggle with the Modern World
Rana Mitter
Oxford University Press 357 pp. 18.99 [pounds sterling] ISBN: 0-19-280341-7.
ON MAY 4TH, 1919, thousands of students gathered in Beijing to protest against the decision of the Versailles Peace Conference to transfer Germany's Chinese concessions to Japan. The students beat one pro-Japanese official and attacked the home of another. Yet the demonstration could hardly be called bloody.
Almost from the start, May Fourth was celebrated as the moment when China stood up. It was seen as a culmination of the New Culture Movement that began in 1915, a repudiation of ...