This paper compares and contrasts Tales of Hulan River by Xiao Hong and The Beginning by Luo Binji. The analysis reveals several new perspectives. First, Manchuria became a Japanese colony after the Mukden Incident. Thus, the northeastern writers were the first to experience the loss of their native place and the fate of going into exile. Life in exile and the accompanying emotions of "homesickness," "nostalgia" and even "cherishing the past," as well as the resulting effect of "reminiscence" and related literary activities, were the common life and societal memories of the northeastern writers. Second, through the literary activities of "reminiscing," they developed a set of approaches to describe the history of individuals and native places, with their views on life and the world embedded therein. Third, although Xiao Hong and Luo Binji both recorded their personal lives and constructed the world of their native places through the literary activities of "reminiscing," and both adopted children's perspectives and language, due to their differences in temperament, life experiences, and feelings toward life, the two writers were entirely different in how they portrayed their native places and their literary characteristics. This paper compares and contrasts Tales of Hulan River and The Beginning, in order to gain an understanding of the similarities and differences in the nativist writing and the social memories between these two works