ABSTRACT
The journal Xiaoshuo yuebao, a Shanghai Commercial Press publication, first appeared in July 1910. Its first phase is generally accepted to last until 1921, when it was taken over by writers whose aims are considered to be radically different from those of the first years, the publication then bearing the stamp of the ‘new literature’ and the May Fourth Movement. This chapter offers offer some examples of what was happening within the pages of Xiaoshuo yuebao in the first years and to try to assess them on their own merits, to ask why certain topics may have been addressed and to attempt to gain a general idea of the type of publication it was. It shows that texts published in Xiaoshuo yuebao did have some contribution to make to contemporary social and political questions, some relationship to actual events of the day.
