History of the Republic of China
On the other hand, since the failure of the Second Revolution, Sun Yat-sen and his allies were trying to rebuild the revolutionary movement. In July 1914 Sun established the Chinese Revolutionary Party (). He felt that his failures at building a consistent revolutionary movement stemmed from the lack of cohesiveness among its members. To that end, Sun required that party members to be totally loyal to Sun and follow a series of rather harsh rules. Some of his earlier associates, including Huang Xing, balked at the idea of such authoritarian organization and refused to join Sun. However, they agreed that the republic must not revert to imperial rule.
Culture of the Republican era in China
The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student participants in Beijing on 4 May 1919. Mainly university and high school students began the protest against the Chinese government's response to the [Treaty of Versailles] which allowed Japan to have territories in Shandong. The students were joined by others in the capital. The Chinese government and people had contributed to the Allied cause and expected the German Empire controlled areas of Shandong, especially the port of Tsingdao, to be returned to Chinese sovereignty given Germany's defeat by the Allied Powers. The Chinese diplomats at the Versailles Treaty appeared to have failed the popular will of the Chinese people since the Allied powers ignored them and allowed Japan to lay claim to German 'possessions' in China. Demonstrations accelerated against Japan and the outsider influence in China and gave new energy to the New Culture Movement. Dubbed the May Fourth movement, the next few years saw an upsurge of Chinese nationalism: a shift towards political mobilization and away from cultural activities, and a move towards populism rather than politics led by intellectual elites. As a result, many political and social leaders of the next revolutionary decades in China emerged.