American's lens captures May 4 history
A photo exhibition in Beijing marks the 95th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, an important cultural and political movement in modern China. The images were taken by American photographer Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968), grandson of James Gamble, one of the co-founders of Proctor & Gamble.
"In the early 1900s, photos were rarely seen in China, and few survive today," says Guo Junying, curator of the memorial. "Gamble captured valuable historical moments from the perspective of a sociologist and preserved those images well."
The May Fourth Movement started with mass student protests on May 4, 1919, against the government's response to the Treaty of Versailles that imposed unfair penalties on China and undermined the country's sovereignty. It then began a national campaign to overthrow the feudal society and promote scientific and democratic ideas.
