---
title: Students burning Japanese goods, Tsinghua School
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/burn-japanese-goods-tsinghua-1919/
description: A photograph shows students at Tsinghua School in Peking gathered in a circle to burn Japanese-made goods in 1919, part of the nationwide boycott that…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Students burning Japanese goods, Tsinghua School](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/burn-japanese-goods-tsinghua-1919.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/burn-japanese-goods-tsinghua-1919.jpg)

# Students burning Japanese goods, Tsinghua School

A photograph shows students at Tsinghua School in Peking gathered in a circle to burn Japanese-made goods in 1919, part of the nationwide boycott that grew out of the May Fourth Movement's anger at the Paris Peace Conference's award of former German concessions in Shandong to Japan. The public, collective ritual of destruction demonstrates the boycott's reach to any student who has not yet joined it.

- **Date:** 1919
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Students of Tsinghua School, Peking (May Fourth Movement anti-Japanese boycott)
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [China](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=china)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Beiyang Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=beiyang-government)
- **Leader:** [Xu Shichang](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=xu-shichang)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [May Fourth Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=may-fourth-movement)
- **Techniques:** [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burn_Japanese_goods,_Tsinghua_School,_1919.jpg), retrieved September 28, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons) http://xs.tsinghua.edu.cn/docinfo/board/boarddetail.jsp?columnId=00301&parentColumnId=003&itemSeq=4380

## Text on the object

Checked for printed text

No printed or legible text on this object.

Checked closely at full resolution: no banners, placards, signs or lettering are visible anywhere among the students standing around the bonfire, on the poles/umbrellas they hold, or on the buildings in the background. A plain documentary photograph with nothing printed on it.

[← Attenti! il serpente tedesco è preso! (Attention! The German serpent is caught!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/attenti-veleno-1919/) [«Единая Россія» 1-ruble stamp (Armed Forces of South Russia, Denikin, 1919) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denikin-edinaya-rossiya-1-ruble-stamp-1919/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [Das ganze Deutschland soll es sein. Haut sie auf den Chassepot! (German broadsheet song and caricature, Franco-Prussian War)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/das-ganze-deutschland-soll-es-sein-chassepot-1870/) (1870 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [Boletín nuevo: Noticias importantes (New Bulletin: Important News), Revolución del Parque](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boletin-nuevo-revolucion-del-parque-1890/) (Jul 29, 1890 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [¡¡Glorias de México!! Porfirio Díaz y Ramón Corral, electos por el voto unánime del pueblo (Glories of Mexico!! Porfirio Díaz and Ramón Corral, Elected by the Unanimous Vote of the People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/glorias-de-mexico-diaz-corral-1904/) (1904 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [La vuelta del desterrado (The Return of the Exile)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vuelta-del-desterrado-vanegas-arroyo-1911/) (1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [Saludo y felicitación al Señor D. Francisco I. Madero al tomar posesión de la presidencia (Salute and Congratulations to Francisco I. Madero on Taking the Presidency)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/saludo-madero-1911/) (Nov 6, 1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.
- [Vote Against Woman Suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/georgia-vote-against-woman-suffrage-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Bandwagon)