电报与政治时间:重新理解一九一九年的“五四事件”

Telegrams and Political Time:A Re-Understanding of the 1919 “May 4th Incident”

19世纪电报技术的出现,在全球范围内建立起一个共时性场域,既毁弃了人们互动的空间,也极大地改变了政治时间。具体到“五四事件”,电报使原未准备在巴黎和会上提出山东问题的中国代表团得以提出该问题,将中国外交失败的消息迅速传回国内,导致北京的“五七”国耻纪念提前爆发,并直接引爆了上海的“三罢”运动。巴黎和会期间,广大民众还通过“通电”这一特殊手段,直接参与了现代政治的决策过程,从某种意义上改变了现代中国政治的运作模式。

The appearance of telegram technologies in the 19th century concurrently built a worldwide situation that destroyed the space for people to interact and greatly changed the concept of political time.Because of the“May 4th Incident”telegram,the Chinese delegation raised the issue of Shandong at the Paris Peace Conference,even though it not been prepared to do so.and this quickly spread the news of China’s diplomatic failures back home.It led to the outbreak of the advance commemoration of the“May 7th”national humiliation and directly triggered the Shanghai strike by“workers,students,and merchants.”During the period of the Paris Peace Conference,due to the special“telegram”method,the masses directly participated in the process of modern political decision-making,which in a sense changed the operating mode of modern Chinese politics.