Literary Day in Republic of China

On May 4, 1919, thousands of students from 13 colleges and universities gathered in Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing to protest the results of the peace talks in Versailles after the end of World War I. They were outraged that the great powers had ceded Shandong Province to Japan and maintained unequal treaties imposed on China. They were outraged at the concessions between the great powers that gave Shandong Province to Japan and kept the unequal treaties imposed on China. They established British, French and international "concessions," or enclaves, in cities such as Shanghai.

The demonstration was the result of intense discussions and meetings during the previous day and night. They presented a pre-planned protest against reports of the involvement of the warlord government in Beijing in the outcome of the negotiations. Students handed out copies of the passionate "Manifesto of All Beijing Students," which called on the nation to rise up "to secure our sovereignty in foreign affairs and to get rid of traitors at home."

Thus emerged the May Fourth Movement, a Chinese social movement that grew out of the student protests at the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on May 4, 1919.