The New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s followed the collapse of Chinese Republic? founded in 1912. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, and Hu Shi, had classical educations but began to lead a revolt against Confucian culture.

What is the overview of the New Culture Movement?

The founders of the New Culture Movement gathered at Beijing University, where they were recruited by a chancellor? Cai Yuanpei.? Dean Chen Duxiu? and librarian Li Dazhao in turn recruited leading figures such as? philosopher Hu Shi, scholar of Buddhism Liang Shuming, historian Gu Jiegang, and many more. Chen founded the journal New Youth in 1915, which later became incredibly famous amongst the middle class and had hundreds of publications.
Yuan Shikai, who inherited part of the Qing dynasty military power after its collapse in 1911, attempted to establish order and unity, but failed to protect China against Japan and never became an emperor. When he died in 1916, the collapse of the traditional order caused severe consequences? and the search for a replacement intensified.

Two western ideologies, democracy and science, were quickly gaining support throughout China. Democracy became a vital tool for those frustrated with the instability of China whereas science became a crucial instrument to discard the "darkness of ignorance and superstition."

The feminism, promoted by many New Culture leaders, was? an violation of traditional values. More specifically, the movement replaced sexuality over the traditional Chinese idea of similarity.

The movement of those times can be divided in two parts. The main contents of the first period were against feudal thought and superstition by democracy and science, and proposed a new naturalistic vernacular writing style, that replaced more complex 2,000-year-old classical style. Chen Duxiu and American-educated scholar Hu Shi were the most outstanding representatives in this period, besides them there were other bright figures like Lu Xun, Li Dazhao and etc.. The second? movement were influenced by Marxism and eventually became more and more political. Combined with the May 4th Movement, the later period of New Culture Movement accounted for the spread of? politic-focused Marxism.

Based on western standards, they aimed to create a new Chinese culture preferably democracy and science.

Main aspects of the movement:

* To write vernacular literature.
* To put an end to the patriarchal family in favor of individual freedom and women's liberation.

* To accept China’s place as a nation among nations, rather than the assertion of superiority of Confucian culture.
* To re-examine Confucian texts and ancient classics using modern textual and critical methods, which known as the “Doubting Antiquity School”.
* To build up democratic and egalitarian values.
* To orientate to the future rather than the past

The movement have two remarkable traits. Firstly, it advocated anti-Confucianism and anti-Classical Chinese, while promoted democracy, science and Vernacular Chinese. And secondly,? it was mainly? Intellectuals movement; almost all of members were professors of Beijing University.

Magazines, slogans and language played a very important role in the New Culture Movement，Intellectuals and students used these media to promote their new ideas and claims.

1. Magazines: the New Youth journal not only indicated the beginning of the New Culture Movement, but also was the core magazine and the fortress or battlefield of the new culture. More than 300 intellectuals published there works in that magazine, including the most famous ones like Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun and Hu Shi . The magazine had a circulation of over 1,000 copies at the beginning, 15,000 to 16000 copies at the peak, and later was sold all over the country.