The great virtue of this book is that it provides a practical acquaintance with the writing itself by means of copious passages of translation from representative novels. -New York Times Book Review C. T. Hsia's book is by now an acknowledged classic. It truly opened up a new field and prepared the way for generations of American scholars to do research. We are all in his debt. -Leo Lee This pioneering classic study of 20th-century Chinese fiction covers some sixty years from the Literary Revolution of 1917 through the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.