二、三０年代上海出現新感覺派，代表人物為劉吶鷗(1900-1939)、穆時英(1912-1940)、施蟄存 (1905)，繼承了創造社開創的色慾小說傳統。但郁達夫和張資平除了短篇以外，更擅長中長篇悲劇色彩作品，新感覺派則完全以短篇見長，作品節奏輕快，創造了一種以情調 (mood) 為主的輕薄短小作品。這種創作形式應該和這類作品經常在通俗雜誌上刊登有關，例如《良友》書報和《婦人畫報》。更值得注意的是作品主題上的變化：相對於創造社會色慾解放╱國族解放想像，新感覺派作品則淡化（或忽略）國族想像，側重描寫都會人生的色慾橫流，塑造了一個性解放的女性形象，反映出大量的上海通俗刊物、電影等媒體所建構的「新女性」文化想像。這種文化想像其有自，必須追溯至清末民初上海發端的女權運動之變遷。 劉吶鷗等人的寫作風格受到日本新感覺派的影響。時值中國兵馬倥傯多事之秋，他們的作品充分反映出十里洋場追逐聲色的頹廢心態。相對於革命小說的教化功能，新感覺派作品以娛樂為作品的最終目的。三０年代初轟動文壇的海派論爭中，穆時英是沈從文點名批判的「新海派」，和禮拜六派、張資平、《良友》畫報及「女校皇后」的品味並列。當年並沒有壁壘分明的京派、海派兩大文學陣營，海派一詞事實上是定義模糊的刻板印象，流露出外來作家對上海通俗文化的成見。這場論戰如果代表的是菁英╱通俗品味之爭，一九二七年國民黨清黨前後旅居上海的許多作家和通俗文化的互動其實十分複雜。在《良友》等通俗刊物上經常看見嚴肅作家的作品，菁英與通俗的界線似乎已逐漸模糊。可從地域文化之爭的角度來看這場論戰－這是「鄉土中國」和上海文化之爭。

　　　　　During the 1920s and 1930s, the Neo-Perceptionists appeared on the literary scene in Shanghai and became famous for erotic fiction. Among them were Liu Na'ou (1900-1939), Mu Shiying (1912-1940), and Shi Zhicun (1905- ). Actually it was Creation Society writers such as Yu Dafu and Zhang Ziping who began the vogue of erotic fiction. Besides writing short stories, Yu and Zhang were good at novellas and novels with tragic overtones. By contrast, the Neo-Perceptionists wrote exclusively short stories (often mini stories) marked by lively language and a celebration of urban mood. Their formal renovation no doubt catered to the taste of popular journals such as Liangyou huabao (Companion) and Furen huabao (Women's pictorial), where their works were often published. More important was the change of theme: in contrast to Creation Society writers' parallel structure of sexual and national liberation, the Neo-Perceptionists neglected the national imagination while stressing instead the sensual pleasures of urban life. Their stories reflected the image of the New Woman constructed by popular Shanghai journals and films. The cultural imagination of the New Woman should be understood in the context of the woman's liberation movement burgeoning in Shanghai since the turn of the century. Influenced by the Japanese Neo-Perceptionists, Liu's and his friends' works reflected the decadent mentality of Shanghai urbanites in pursuit of prurience during a time when China was beset by social and military turmoil. As a contrast to the didacticism of the "revolutionary stories" popular then, the works of the Neo-Perceptionists were primarily written for entertainment. During the 1930s Beijing types and Shanghai types debate, Mu Shiying was singled out by Shen Congwen and derided as a "new Shanghai type," put on a par with the Saturday School, Zhang Ziping, the journal Companion, and the "queens of girls' schools." The clear-cut division of writers into the Beijing School and the Shanghai School is a recent construction by literary critics today, and did not really exist then. The term "Shanghai type" referred mainly to stereotypes and revealed the prejudiced opinions of writers from the outside against Shanghai popular culture. If that debate represented the strife between the elite taste and the popular taste, we should keep in mind that many writers who sought shelter in Shanghai during the time of the 1927 Guomingdang party purge took little time before surrendering to the beckon of local popular culture. Many serious writers contributed to popular journals regularly, blurring the line between the elite and the popular. We can instead look at the debate as a clash between "rural China" and Shanghai culture.