In 300 multiparagraph entries, Li-hua Ying offers what she declares a controversial definition of Chinese literary modernism: she begins with the May Fourth generation, focuses on literature written in vernacular rather than classical Chinese, and incorporates culturally or politically disparate areas of China. A chronology charts the modernist advance from 1891 to the present. Concise, fully cross-referenced entries profile literary figures, movements, organizations, and publications that shaped the modern literary movement throughout the nation and beyond its political boundaries. An authoritative work.