On the Margins of Modernism

This book introduces and analyzes the fiction of Xu Xu and Wumingshi and shows their importance during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) until 1949. It makes the wider argument that their short stories and novels in this period, and popular Chinese literature more broadly, was indebted to the Shanghai modernist writers of the 1930s (xinganjue pai). Shanghai modernism in the 1930s was an important literary movement, but the conventional view is that these authors had little long-lasting impact on Chinese literature. This book contests this view, arguing that their innovative style was eventually appropriated and adapted into popular literature in multiple ways.