一般說來，老舍是一個慣於將濃重的地方色彩納入其作品的作家。然而一個重要的文學史現象是，老舍在抗戰初期曾有意識的在作品中放逐對北京地方色彩的描繪和書寫，並不再使用其最擅長的北京方言進行創作。直到1943年前後，老舍才重新將對北京地方風物的刻畫與表現，納入到自己的小說創作中來。本文即希望對這一文學史現象進行解讀，分析地方色彩在老舍四十年代小說創作中所經歷的「失而復得」的原因。文章最後認為，老舍之所以在抗戰初期放棄書寫北京的地方色彩，是因為他擔心對某一地域的書寫會使作品無法寫出中華民族在抗戰中的嶄新形象，不能起到對民眾的宣傳鼓動作用；然而在1941年前後，隨著老舍開始把地方色彩看作是進行國族敘述的載體和手段，對北京地方色彩的渲染和書寫，重新成為其作品最重要的特徵。

In general, Lao She is a writer accustomed to depict local color in his novels. However, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, this novelist suddenly refused to portray story of Beijing and stop using the vernacular of Beijing in his works. Until around 1943, Lao She re-characterized the local scenery of Beijing in his novels. This paper, through the analysis of this important phenomenon of modern Chinese literary History, attempts to reveal the reason of the lost and found of the local color in Lao She's works. This article argues that Lao She stopped depicting the local scenery at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese war, because he was worried about depict a specific area affect his readers who come from the southern China to understand his works. Around 1941, however, when Lao She began to take the local color as the means to carry the national narrative, the representations of Beijing reappeared in his novels.