Making the Idol of the New Culture: Hu Shi and His Readers

Having gained fame during the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi further took advantage of the influence of the May Fourth Movement and John Dewey’s visit and quickly became a leading figure of the intellectual and academic fields. After analyzing the process of the idolization of Hu Shi and the surrounding conditions from the perspective of the history of reading, it can be found that Hu Shi’s interpersonal skills and tactics played an essential role. He was adept in leveraging mass media as his vehicles and interacting with diverse readers, all of which paved for his rise to fame. In sum, the establishment of Hu Shi’s status as a new cultural idol is a construct that involves both Hu’s deliberate endeavor and performance and the public’s active participation.