National consciousness and the Communist Revolution in China, 1921-1928

This essay examines the relationship between national consciousness and the Communist Revolution in China between the years 1921 and 1928.In tracing the trajectory of the national consciousness in our stipulated time period we can discern three distinct phases in its manifestation. Up until 1919 national consciousness was confined primarily to an intellectual elite whose primary concern was the decadence of the Imperial and Confucian state. Following the May Fourth movement (1919), these concerns came to be diffused amongst the urban population.After the formation of the Chinese Communist Party, the Party addressed nationalist concerns by focusing on the role of imperialists and warlords. This continued following the alliance with the Nationalist Party, the Guomindang, under the United Front.By 1925 there was the growth of populist movements with distinctly anti-imperialist overtones. The same time also saw a growing interest in the potential of the peasantry as the vanguard for the nationalist revolution. After the April 12, 1927 coup, the Party focused exclusively on the peasantry to carry on with the Nationalist Revolution