The year 1919 changed Chinese culture radically but in a way that completely took
contemporaries by surprise. At the beginning of the year even well-informed intellectuals did
not anticipate that for instance baihua (aprecursor of the modern Chinese language)
communism Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu would become important and famous - all of which was very
obvious to them at the end of the year. Elisabeth Forster traces the precise mechanisms behind
this transformation on the basis of a rich variety of sources including newspapers personal
letters student essays advertisements textbooks and diaries. She proposes a new model for
cultural change which puts intellectual marketing at its core. This book retells the story of
the New Culture Movement in light of the diversifi ed and decentered picture of Republican
China developed in recent scholarship. It is a lively and ironic narrative about cultural
change through academic infi ghting rumors and conspiracy theories newspaper stories and
intellectuals (hell-)bent on selling agendas through powerful buzzwords.
