Source 1b

Students burning Japanese goods during the May Fourth Movement, Tsinghua School, Beijing. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

  • Is there an original caption or title for the photograph?
  • Where is the photograph taken? Can you see anything relating to the event, environment, architecture, time of day, or season?
  • What can you see in the photograph?
  • Why do you think the photographs have been taken?
  • Who is the audience for these photographs?
  • What evidence do these photographs provide about the May Fourth Movement?
  • Does the content of photographs suggest other lines of enquiry?
  • What further sources would help us understand these photographs?
  • Look these photographs again at the end of the lesson:
    • Has your understanding of the photographs changed? Do these photographs give us a perspective on the May Fourth Movement that the written documents do not?