Hu Shi published A Preliminary Discussion of Literary Reform in New Youth, proposing changes to expression, language, and methods of writing.
The development of vernacular writing had a broader history and many participants. The essay became an important text of the New Culture Movement, rather than the sole starting point of reform.
Academic career
Hu became a "national scholar" through funds appropriated from the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. On 16 August 1910, he was sent to study agriculture at Cornell University in the United States. In 1912, he changed his major to philosophy and literature, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was also a member and later a president of the Cosmopolitan Club, an international student organization. While at Cornell, Hu led a campaign to promote the newer, easier to learn written vernacular Chinese which helped spread literacy in China. He also helped found Cornell's extensive library collections of East Asian books and materials.
Essays
In the 15 July New Youth issue, Hu published an essay entitled, Chastity. In the traditional Chinese context, this refers not only to virginity before marriage, but specifically to women remaining chaste before they marry and after their husband's death. He wrote that this is an unequal and illogical view of life, that there is no natural or moral law upholding such a practice, that chastity is a mutual value for both men and women, and that he vigorously opposes any legislation favoring traditional practices on chastity. There was a movement to introduce traditional Confucian value systems into law at the time.
His 1947 essay We Must Choose Our Own Direction was devoted to liberalism. He held the Jiaxu manuscript for many years until his death.
Vernacular style
Hu Shih was part of the Chinese language reform movement and used the vernacular style in writing articles. The opposite style of writing is Classical Chinese, and one of the key leaders of this language was Zhang Shizhao. Hu Shih and Zhang Shizhao had only a ten-year age difference, but the men seemed to be of differing generations.
Zhang was the biggest 'enemy' of the vernacular style, According to Liang Souming: "Lin Shu and Zhang Shizhao were two most significant people against vernacular style of writing in history". But in fact, Hu Shih and Zhang Shizhao had a big age difference; when Zhang was at work in Shanghai, Hu was only a middle school student.
May Fourth Movement
Hu Shih participated in the May Fourth Movement, marking the beginning of modern China. Hu had a vision of the May Fourth Movement in China as part of a global shift in philosophy, led by Western countries. The global nature of the movement, in Hu's eyes, was particularly important, given China's relatively recent status as a global power. During the May Fourth Movement, Hu's political position shifted dramatically. As fellow thinkers and students of the movement looked towards socialism, Hu also gained a more favorable view of the collective, centralized organization of groups like the Soviet Union and the Third International. After the early 1930s, he changed back to his earlier positions, which put more weight on individualism. Hu then began criticizing communism such as Mao's government and the Soviet Union. During the chaotic period this movement developed, Hu felt pessimism and a sense of alienation.
Towards the end of Hu's life, he expressed disappointment at the politicization of the May Fourth Movement, which he felt was counter to the primarily philosophical and linguistic issues that drove him to participate in it. No matter how Hu's position shifted through the course of the Movement, he always put the May Fourth Movement in a global, albeit Eurocentric, context. Despite the implications of the May Fourth Movement, Hu Shih ultimately expressed regret that he was unable to play a larger role in his nation's history.