Abstract
Regarding the development of Shanghai, the 1930s was its peak moment of pre-war urban civilization, and the widely-accepted popular culture arose. The entertainment culture which went after the preference of the public became very popular. The Shanghai style novels, Yuanyang-Hudie style novels, and even the left-wing novels were all setting a goal of getting closer to the general public. Although the abovementioned novels had the same goal, they confronted each other with total different positions. This phenomenon was due to the long-time opposition between the Chinese elegant culture and the popular culture. Around the year of 1931, the left-wing writers promoted ”the popularization of literature”, trying to make literature and art depart from the lead of the elites. However, the ideology of the elite culture still existed, and the revolution was actually trying to bring the elite culture to the general public. Although the left-wing writers claimed ”the popularization of literature”, what they really hoped for was ”the popularization of the elite culture”. However, the hope was doubtlessly a futile approach. It was too high of an ideal to eliminate the differences between the elites and the public.