白先勇書寫一九四九以後，因為歷史的偶然而來到臺灣落腳的一群外省移民的故事，並且聚焦在今昔對比、流離的傷痛和情欲壓抑上。這些小說基本上都是悲劇，塑造了一群「臺北人」，一群孤臣孼子的形象。和他背景頗為相似的李渝，雖也具有外省背景，出身臺大外文系，受現代主義之影響，其八十年代之後同樣以「臺北人」為主題而寫作了一系列「溫州街的故事」，卻呈顯了和白先勇全然不同的風格與內涵，不只筆調轉為含蓄內斂，注重寧靜溫暖氣氛之營造，刻意放慢敘事，內涵上亦追求一種意志的延續、美的堅持，在困蹇之中猶能力求理想之傳遞，和白先勇式的「臺北人」相反，走出戰後外省移民失落「中國」的悲情，讓「中國」成為一種形上的，文化的存在。

Li-Yu and Pai Hsien-yung's background is very similar. They are afterwar-foreign emigration, graduated from NTU-department of foreign languages and literary, accepted modernism, and their ages are near. “People in Taipei” is Li-Yu and Pai Hsien-yung's idea of novels, that attended to write the correlative of image-china and actual-taiwan of emigration. The nati-hero in Pai's stories is very sad, distressful, burdensome, crazy or death under desire and dispersion, or pass life's hurt but became oversophisticate. But, Li-Yu's “The story of Wenjou St.” are so warm, genial, slowly, had some beau ideal even if encounter big hurt, find the power of aspirant in arduous actuality. The difference came from time and space that they wrote, Li-Yu's development experience, the art-tradition that they liked, and two writers' literary adherence. These made her “People in Taipei” quit the kind of melancholy of Pai's crystal boys and lonesome allegiant.