THE May 4 heritage does not match the current needs of Taiwan society, say three cultural commentators.
But they differ over whether the island's politics and culture have developed beyond the concerns raised by the May 4 Movement, or regressed.
Wang Hsing-ching , a senior political and cultural columnist and chief editorial writer for Taiwan's The Journalist weekly, believes that the May 4 Movement has little relevance now.
'Those young intellectuals shouted all sorts of wonderful slogans for democracy, science, patriotism, but they achieved very little,' said Wang, adding that 'technocrats have more weight in modernisation than academics'.
Wang added that the contribution of intellectuals to Taiwan's own democratisation was limited.
'The main impetus was the huge expansion of education and economic activity in the 1960s and 1970s, after which the Government was no longer able to oppress people so severely.' But he added: 'While in the past, Taiwan intellectuals were frequently over-emotional and didn't pay enough respect to concrete knowledge, now many young people have become cynical and effectively conservative.
'We need to balance enthusiasm and knowledge and maintain a sense of international awareness so that we can see what should and can be changed and what can't.' He said the March 23 presidential election 'helped flush out a lot of garbage and political relics left over from the authoritarian period'.