Dealing with the central issues of style in literature, this study should be useful to sinologists, but also for all students of comparative literature. Michel Hockx takes as a point of departure the observation that most writers of the Republican period adhered to a distinctly traditional practice of gathering in literary societies, while at the same time displaying a marked preference for publishing their works through the modern medium of the literary journal. The first part of the book analyzes different types of societies and their journals. The case studies in part two convey the wider impact of literary collectives and journal publications on literary practice. Breaking with the May Fourth paradigm, the author proposes a radically new way of understanding the relationship between New Literature and other styles of modern Chinese writing.