[1] This anthology includes works from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong,[2] and also Chinese-speaking authors of other places,[3] originally published in Chinese between 1918 and 1992.
These works would be classified by Chinese literary critics as being dangdai (contemporary) and xiandai (modern).
[5] Martin W. Huang of the University of California, Irvine wrote that despite the omission of drama and novels, this was the first single book in which one is "able to read in English some of the most representative works in major genres written by modern Chinese writers and enjoy a relatively complete picture".
[4] Tatiana Fisac of the Autonomous University of Madrid argued that the book uses the Taiwanese authors of 1949-1976 "as the truly significant contributors to the Chinese literary canon during that time" and ""alternative worlds" to the asphyxiating political atmosphere for creative writing that prevailed during the Maoist era on the mainland, when the subordination of literature to official politics was enforced.
[1] He also stated that not including Communist literature during the 1949-1976 period results in "a disruption in the anthology's implied historical presentation, and therefore, undermines to a degree its comprehensiveness" and that this is the case "[e]ven if one agrees with the editors that the literature produced in China during this period generally lacks genuine literary appeal".
[2] McDougall argued that by omitting almost all Mainland authors from 1949 to 1976, "readers are deprived of flawed but nevertheless compelling examples of political fiction struggling to make sense of drastic social change.