Protestors dissatisfied with Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles for China
On May 4, 1919, more than 3,000 students from Peking University and other schools marched to Tiananmen Square to protest the signing of the Versailles Agreement, which gave the Chinese province of Shandong to Japan after Germany’s surrender in World War I. Slogans such as “struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home,” expressed resentment at the perceived Allied betrayal of China, as well as the government’s lack of protection for Chinese interests. What become known as the “May Fourth Movement” marked a watershed in which popular nationalism supplanted the thinking of a traditionalist intelligentsia as the principle driving force in Chinese society.
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