New Column in the Global Times: May Fourth

I have a new column up at The Global Times on, appropriate for the day, the legacy of May Fourth.  It’s based, in part, on some earlier posts on the same topic, and the main theme — that the spirit of intellectual dynamism which characterized the New Culture Era is something to be celebrated, now more than ever — has appeared in various posts in this space and others over the years:

Today is the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Demonstrations, the capstone event in a decade marked with intellectual vitality and ideological debate. It was a time when teachers, students, writers, scholars, men and women drew on a panoply of ideas to make sense of their world, their nation, and how best to build a strong and vital society.

It is a legacy of which China can be justifiably proud. Not only was this a glorious time in the nation’s own intellectual history, it was one of the greatest periods of intellectual dynamism the world has ever seen.

Interestingly, there’s also another op-ed in today’s paper on the same theme:

Nearly a century later, China once again is at a critical stage in its development. Modernization is still the central question that puzzles Chinese intellectuals; What should China do in a constantly progressing world? What developmental model best suits China? These questions are no less pressing today than they were 90 years ago.

Answers to these questions require great wisdom. The May Fourth Movement still provides an answer: liberate the mind and embrace different thoughts.

The dazzling economic performance in three decades of reform testifies to the power of creativity that flows from free minds. In remembering the May Fourth Movement, we must remember that continual progress is impossible without an openness to different points of view. Blind belief in any ideology, be it based on Chinese traditional thinking or Western ideals, as a cure-all solution for the country is wrong. Creativity can only come through the clash of different thoughts.

A favorable environment should be created to foster competing ideas. That’s an effective way to find a value system that can be shared by the maximum number of Chinese. Discouraging critical thinking through administrative intervention is the wrong choice. In the road towards building a stronger country, China needs to open wider to and harbor clashes of different ideas, and learn from the cultures of other countries. That is the essence of the May Fourth Movement, and the essence of the reform.

Hear, hear.

From the archives

• The archivist is at a loss to find a related post.