Posts Tagged: japan

Facing a War on Two Fronts

With the Communist Party continuing to foment insurrection internally, the Japanese in Manchuria became increasingly aggressive. Echoing Feng Guifen’s predicament during the Taiping Rebellion, Chiang was forced to choose where to allocate his forces, and he chose the communists. A patriotic warlord in the western city of Xian took issue with Chiang’s decision and decided… Read more »

Chiang Kai-shek’s Early Life

Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) was born into a salt merchant family in Xikou, a town in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Chiang studied the classics early in life but never took an imperial examination. Instead, in 1905, Chiang cut off his Manchu-style queue and departed for Japan. Unlike other Chinese reformers in Japan at the time, Chiang’s goal… Read more »

The May Fourth Movement

The May Fourth Movement, wusi yundong (五四运动), brought Chen Duxiu to the height of his influence. Chinese intellectuals around the country were sparked to anger by Liang Qichao’s telegram from Paris announcing the secret agreement between the Chinese government and Japan to turn over Germany’s territorial concessions to the Japanese. Already planning to protest the anniversary of… Read more »

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