In modern history, that movement strongly opposed traditional culture and advocated total westernization.

In the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi was more rational and objective than Qian and Liu Bannong. On the one hand, he opposes the dross in traditional culture (such as women's foot-binding and so on). ); On the other hand, the essence of traditional culture (such as Beijing Opera) has also been given the right to speak freely, such as publishing Zhang Houzai's Beijing Opera commentary in New Youth.

Hu Shi's "total westernization" is a total negation of China's traditional culture. Of course, in the social environment at that time, "taking the law is almost only taking the middle way", which is also a last resort. Moreover, Hu Shi himself later claimed that the expression at that time was too arbitrary, and he didn't really want to "completely westernize".