Panorama of new era

"The newspapers and magazines at the time sympathized with the patriotic activities of the students and published illustrations advocating the upholding of national sovereignty. They rejected the treaty and criticized the Beiyang government," Qin Suyin, one of the curators, writes in the China Cultural Relics newspaper.

"Such materials are popular with visitors (at the exhibition). They give a vivid picture of the May Fourth Movement and allow people to get a sense of that era," Qin adds.

The Beijing exhibition not only displays Chinese publications at the time but also includes 18 photographs by the late US photographer Sidney D. Gamble, with support from the Duke University Libraries in the United States.

The show runs through June 9 at the exhibition's venue-the Honglou, or Red Building, at the former site of Peking University. Construction started in 1916 and was completed two years later. The building is described as the cradle of the May Fourth Movement, from where the founders and early leaders of the Communist Party of China, including Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Mao Zedong, worked to disseminate Marxism and pushed forward the revolutionary campaign.