David Wang's knowledge of modern Chinese literature and his readings provide reinterpretation of the three major Chinese novelists after Lu Xun, traditionally ranked as the dominant voice and influence in the genre of Chinese fictional realism. Wang offers a detailed exegesis of the writers' major works, arguing that Mao Dun, Lao She and Shen Congwen give rise to the polyphonic development of Chinese realism that Lu Xun primarily set into motion.