[Peking University Anniversary] Why does Peking University celebrate its anniversary on May Fourth?
May 04, 2019
Peking University, May 4, 2019: The 4th of May in 1919 witnessed an intellectual and sociopolitical revolution known as the May Fourth Movement, and May 4th has also been commemorated as the founding day of Peking University. However, it should be noted that May 4th is not the exact date when Peking University was founded.
According to Professor Chen Pingyuan from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, the accurate “birthday” of Peking University is supposed to be on December 30th, 1898. Professor Chen has spent much time and efforts in digging out the original “birthday” of Peking University and tracking its changes. His careful and scrupulous work provides us with new insights into the “birthday” of Peking University and the significance of the shift of Peking University’s founding anniversary.
Several scholars had explored questions about the exact founding day of Peking University before Chen. Hu Shih, former president of Peking University as well as a prominent intellectual, is perhaps the most famous among others. Hu believes that December 17th of the Chinese lunar year (January 28th, 1899 in the Gregorian calendar) is the day when Peking University was founded. Yet Chen disagrees with this view, supporting himself with a piece of news found on Shen Bao (Shanghai News). The news reported that “Imperial University of Peking (predecessor of Peking University) started school on November 19th (on the lunar calendar).” And students were required to arrive at school on November 18th. Chen proposes that we should take November 18th (December 30th in the Gregorian calendar) as PKU’s founding anniversary, instead of 19th — in honor of Zhang Baixi, an official of the Qing court. After PKU was paralyzed by the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Zhang organized the reopening of Peking University in 1902. He decided to hold the opening ceremony of PKU on December 17th (November 18th in the Chinese lunar calendar), which corresponds to the day when students were supposed to arrive at school in 1898. Chen believes that Zhang chose this day for a certain reason, but he has not figured it out yet. Having said that, for a long time before 1954, Peking University has celebrated its anniversary on December 17th each year.
Professor Chen also looked into the shift of Peking University’s founding anniversary from the original December 17th to the current May 4th. He found out it was Tang Yongtong, former vice president of Peking University, who first advocated for celebrating the anniversary on May 4th instead of December 17th. Tang suggested in 1951 that December was the time when “the final exams are due, so both faculty and students do not have the time or mood to celebrate school anniversary”. However, this proposal was not adopted immediately, and the shift was not accomplished until 1954. This “gradual shifting process” was never explained explicitly in any official record according to Chen. But he clearly does not believe that the alteration of school anniversary is merely because of the imminent final exams, or because of the cold winter weather according to some sources. Instead, Chen contends that the decision of altering PKU’s founding anniversary is fundamentally a political move. The 1950s was the time when politics had a strong hold on everyday life, including college life, and Peking University was undergoing a huge transformation back then. Thus, when Chairman Mao Zedong, also known as the founder of People’s Republic of China, implicitly demonstrated a preference for the celebrations of May Fourth Movement over those of Peking University’s anniversary, some people sought to change the anniversary day to May 4th. This alteration was understandable because Peking University played a leading role in the May Fourth Movement and was closely associated with it. As Chen observes, the alteration of the day that celebrates PKU’s founding anniversary actually represents a new chapter of Peking University in comparison to the old one.
Written by: Yang Hongyun
Edited by: Xu Liangdi
Sources: Oriental History Review（《东方历史评论》), Stories of the Old Peking University（《老北大的故事》), On Universities (《大学何为》)
