ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of intellectuals in Chinese society, explore the causes and effects of the May Fourth Movement. It analyzes the changing relationship between state and intellectuals under the forty years of Communist rule, and describes the intellectual challenges to the Communist government that presaged the political storm. Under the influence of the leading intellectuals, student movements became an effective outlet for younger scholars to articulate their views and the views of the masses. The first organized student movement in modern times, popularly known as the May Fourth Movement, unfolded in May 1919. The May Fourth Movement, the most significant student uprising in modern Chinese history, paralleled the student protests in the Song Dynasty, when students advocated war against the Jurched. Student movements in China have always been the convergence of various currents–the effects of intellectual fermentation and developments in the domestic and international spheres.
