1930?? ??????? ¡°ÎåËÄ¡± ?? (May 4 Memories of New Enlightenmentalists in the 1930s)

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This paper reviewed how the salvation crisis, the defining circumstance of the Chinese elite since the modern China, affected the constitution of the memories of the May Fourth, in particular in reference to the New Enlightenment Movement in the 1930s. The Movement was a cultural movement that spanned September 1936 through the end of 1937, spreading among left-wing intellectuals in Beiping(Beijing) and Shanghai. At that time China was in danger of being conquered by the Japanese imperialists and needed salvation from despair by invoking the legacy of the May Fourth spirits.
The New Enlightenment Movement culminated an effort to bring to bear the experiences and insights from a cultural movement, but not comparable to the May Fourth Movement in size and length, it was incomplete in content and inconsistent in form. Its main limitation was that it was more in line with the requirements of nationalist mobilization by putting more emphasis to collective ideological participation rather than individual enlightened rationality.
However, it is seen that the then rallying cries appealed to and had considerable impact on the Chinese public in urgent need of national salvation. Li Shenzhi, a pro-democracy scholar who was then in his youth, reflected on the movement, "it spread extensively soon with the myriad intellectuals gravitating to the new wave." Also, "the History of Modern Chinese Enlightenment Movement" published by He Ganzhi in Shanghai in December 1937 was so popular that the third edition was reprinted only three months after the first one. Like this, there was evidence of the strong appeal made by the movement's agenda, which appeared to signify a loose but important connection between the cause of salvation and the cause of enlightenment.
This is also reminiscent of the enlightenment movement revived during the 1980s. As is well known, the voices for enlightenment from the intellectual and thought leaders since the reform opening of China have echoed with the feelings of the salvation crisis. The feelings of crisis of being deleted from the list of countries on the globe, which were reflected in the famous TV drama "River Elegy" was a good example. Such calls for cultural changes sparked by crises from the outside have been typical responses among Chinese intellectuals during modern Chinese history, which is thought to be more like a genetic legacy inherited. However, for China to promote societal enlightenment in its true sense, it seems desirable to throw away the obsession with salvation and patriotic nationalism, among others. In this context, it is quite interesting that how to leverage the historic memories of May 4 for the future.
It is also intriguing that different attitudes of participants between the political section and cultural section were observed in the New Enlightenment Movement, that is, bold and decisive actions were called for in the political section, while attitudes towards the old traditions were demanded with more prudence. This more open position to the traditional culture is distinguished from the radical inclination shown in the May 4 cultural movement. This has a strong parallel with the different lines of behaviors that today's China has taken in political and cultural settings, so to speak, a possibility of a simultaneous presence of political radicalism and cultural conservatism. This can be construed as another legacy from the New Enlightenment Movement, which still tended to advocate the old culture.