The Shandong Question

Michel Hockx

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Chapter 1 The Shandong Question

In: New Vocabularies of May Fourth Studies

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Michel Hockx

Michel Hockx
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 14–31

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004697904_003

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Abstract

The standard narrative of the May Fourth Movement holds that students in Beijing were moved to demonstrate on May 4, 1919, because of the impending signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which would transfer German concessions in Shandong province to Japan. The standard narrative also tells us that the May Fourth Movement was successful because, after a month of demonstrations and boycotts, in June 1919, the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference refused to sign the Treaty.

However, the standard narrative does not tell us what not signing the Treaty meant for the status of Shandong. The “Shandong Question” appears ultimately irrelevant to the historical account of the May Fourth Movement. The main outcome of the May Fourth Movement is national solidarity and a national challenge to the imperialist powers. In that larger process, Shandong was initially a catalyst, but eventually insignificant.

In this chapter, archival materials are discussed alongside scholarly narratives in order to reconstruct the process by which Shandong was restored to Chinese sovereignty, and to try and understand why the diplomatic solution to the Shandong Question has failed to make an impact on the May Fourth master narrative.

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New Vocabularies of May Fourth Studies

Series: Ideas, History, and Modern China, Volume: 33

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004697904

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Oct 2024

Subjects
- Asian Studies
  - China
  - History
- History
  - Intellectual History
  - Chinese History

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Chapter 1 The Shandong Question

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New Vocabularies of May Fourth Studies

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