The 1919 social movement – generally termed the ‘May Fourth Movement’ – arose from students’ protests in Beijing rapidly spreading to other sectors of society and cities, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Wuhan. Although placed within a broader picture of a cultural and socio-political reform in China, which eventually led to the formation of the Communist Party in 1921, the movement was triggered by an international affair at the end of the World War I, which in turn dictated the transference of Chinese territories to Japan. The ideological foundations behind the movement do not generate consensus among researchers, and so we ought to see it as a multipart movement with contrasting features shifting between critics of Chinese cultural values (seen as the principal cause for a subservient position to imperial powers), nationalistic popular protesters, supporters of a democratic pathway against military governance, and young radicals aiming at redefine a cultural identity.

Sandra Lourenço begins her talk with a reading of the movements’ diffusion looking specifically to a general strike that brought together various sectors of Shanghai society. Following this introduction, instead of focusing on the origins of the 1919 movement, she analyses its influence in the succeeding decades in shaping an urban modernity and a sense of public space visible in the daily life of modern Shanghai. By looking at certain aspects of the 1930s Chinese cinema, whereby the city emerges as the leitmotif along with background social protests, she argues this convergence not only reveals the local and global character of Shanghai, but also an intergenerational and inter-sector involvement of the civil society in the city’s complex fabric. As many of these ‘social actors’ were subsequently displaced to Hong Kong due to political reasons, Sandra will conclude with a final questioning about the movement’s legacy in Hong Kong's modernity.