三○年代上海都市文明的發展到達戰爭前夕的高峰，隨之並興的是廣為大眾接受的通俗文化，以大眾喜好為主要訴求的消遣與娛樂文化大行其道，海派小說、鴛鴦蝴蝶派小說，甚至是左翼小說，都以「向大眾靠攏」為目標。然而在相同的目標之下，前述派別迥異的小說，其立場卻激烈對峙，探究其因，是中國長久以來高雅文化與通俗文化之間的對立。1931年前後左翼文壇推動的「文學大眾化」，試圖使文藝脫離菁英的主導而趨於俗化，但此一目標底層的意識形態仍不脫菁英文化由上而下對庸眾宣揚革命的載道觀。左翼文學所期望的「文學大眾化」，事實上是「菁英文化大眾化」，這對當時的中國而言，困難重重，此一現象反映的是當時要消除菁英與庸眾階級之間的差異，無疑是陳義過高。

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.