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During the May Fourth period, China witnessed both a national awakening and a great culture revolution. Scholars of modern Chinese history agree that the May Fourth movement represented a major shift in Chinese ideology. Instead of adopting only Western technology in a manner in which Confucianism was never questioned like the pre-1895 reformers, Chinese intellectuals launched an all-out attack on traditional Chinese ideology. The May Fourth Movement began as a demonstration to protest China's treatment at the Paris Peace Conference and evolved into a national movement for cultural and political awakening. The May Fourth movement can be interpret as nationalistic movement. Students from all over China united to protest Chinese national interests being taking away by outside powers. This could be what modern nationalism is all about, a secular sentiment which united the Chinese people and give them a national consciousness and a dignity of purpose. In addition, this broader movement included political activism by the educated, literary reforms, and the examination of what was once considered unquestionable, namely Confucianism.

For Liang, nationalism was what China need during the period, and he claimed that nationalism offered the best hope for China if not the quickest route to modernity. After a visit to San Francisco, Liang noticed that Chinese were qualified only to be members of family clans. "They had neither national consciousness nor dignity of purpose" (Huang 1972:79). Liang, one of the most influential intellectuals during the pre-Republican era, looked to Japan for reform models. He learned that most of the Japanese liberals were in reality ardent nationalists and advocates of Social Darwinism. They argued that Japan should be urgently building a strong nation to ensure its survival. Liang's Japanese-style liberalism is much more focused on wealth and power, according to Nathan. "Liang perceived a world of fierce competition among nations and races, in which the solidarity of the group offered the only means of survival" (Nathan 1987:49) Democracy, individualism, and universal education act chiefly as a means of communication between the government and people, in order to build up nationalism. The attribute of liberalism is an essential corollary to wealth and power. But even more important is the common interest all members of the state have in national survival. A state that succeeds in regulating internal competition in order to make itself more effective in external competition is ruling in the common interest of its members. (Huang 1972: 62) In short, for Liang, the usage of Western political ideology should be undertaken to enable the survival of the Chinese nation. To further Liang's believe in nationalism "even if a governmental system deprives the people of much or all of their freedom, it is a good system so long as it is founded on a spirit of meeting requirements of national defense." (Huang 1972:62)

For many intellectuals, choosing a strong nationalism with a benevolent dictatorship, which would enable China to stand up to the West and its imperialistic behavior, was not a difficult choice to make. Modern nationalism gives the Chinese people a higher sense of purpose. Chinese with a strong nationalistic sentiment would be able to act according to the best interest of the nation. Liang Chi-chao and many other Chinese intellectuals believed that the Chinese in the modern era must identity themselves as zhongguoren, or the people of the Chinese nation. This carried connotations of modern patriotism, where in which the Chinese people feel a connectedness with the fate of China as a nation. The concept of China as a nation-state with interests that must be protected and advanced, in competition with other nation-states, arose. Associated with this new nationalism comes a sense of fulfillment, of being the bearers of a cultural heritage handed down from their ancestors, of being essentially separate from non-Chinese. For many Chinese intellectuals who spend times in foreign land, and their overseas Chinese supporter, the difference between Chinese and non-Chinese can easily be pointed out. But they had to broadcast their message of national consolidation to the general public. In some ways, the May Fourth movement allowed this message to pass out loudly and clearly to the urban areas in China. The message was clear: If the Chinese did not stand up as one nation, the injustice China witnessed in the Paris Conference would only be the beginning. They wanted the rest of Chinese population to understand and support their nationalistic intent.