Both the Japanese and Shanghai Neo-Sensationists who began their literary careers during the 1920s and 1930s were deeply indebted to the French modernist Paul Morand. These writers, like the male narrators in their stories, were more or less self-styled dandies, who made it a rule not only to live but to write in style. Dandyism is basically about border crossing. Besides national and class boundaries, the dandy goes beyond gender boundaries as well. The dandy and the modern girl are two sides of the same coin; the modern girl is the reflection of the dandy's self. A defender of good taste and préciosité, he takes upon himself the duty of teaching the modern girl how to behave and dress. But while he is infatuated with modern girls' looks and refinement, he is highly skeptical of their intelligence and fidelity, disclosing a deeply rooted misogyny on his part. This paper starts with the discussion of tenohira no shōsetsu (Palm-of-the-hand story), a genre Kawabata Yasunari learned from Morand and made famous during the 1920s. Imitated by the Shanghai modernists, it was turned into a celebration of dandyism. This kind of mini-story allowed them to cross the borders between the elite and the popular, display the dandyish fascination with the female figure and misogyny, and transform the exotic Modern Girl into a materialized symbol of modernist artifice. In addition, the macaronic style and the unconventional mode of expression in these stories reflect a way of life and an attitude towards the semicolonial metropolitan world in Shanghai. Another characteristic the Neo-Sensationists share with the French modernists is a passion for travel. Driven by the sense of being homeless, these perpetual travelers, roaming the great cities of Europe or Asia, were infatuated by chance encounters with seductive women, who either draw out reflections on the self or manifest the epitome of modernity.