His seminal work, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, published in 1961, is credited with introducing the West to the literary movements of the 1930s and 1940s in mainland China. Due to the Cold War, there was very little information about Chinese literature then. Hsia was thus considered a pioneer in this aspect, and his work remains one of the major textbooks in the study of modern Chinese literature.
In "A History Of Modern Chinese Fiction", Hsia praised the works of several less-known and established Chinese authors then, including Qian Zhongshu, Eileen Chang and Shen Congwen. Through Hsia's work, more people began to pay attention to these authors' works, so that they entered mainstream recognition.
Despite his ground-breaking seminal work receiving great recognition and praise, Hsia's work was criticized for various reasons. Hsia did not give the renowned Lu Xun a very favourable opinion in "A History Of Modern Chinese Fiction". This was criticized by Czech critic Jaroslav Prusek, who denounced Hsia's research and writing as being "unscientific".
Read more about this topic: Hsia Chih-tsing
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