Born in Shanghai in 1921, C.T. Hsia, also known as Hsia Chih-tsing, moved to the United States in 1947, later becoming a professor at Columbia University. Though he adored Western literature, he is best known for introducing Chinese literature to the West amid the information vacuum about China that characterized the Cold War, and establishing a literary canon that lasts to this day, Mr. Wang said.
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In the 1950s, there was no field called modern Chinese literature, so the publication of his book in 1961 ["History of Modern Chinese Fiction"], that was a big thing. That was a book that made him famous in the West. As a result, a discipline was established.
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One cannot start any new study of Chinese literary modernity without first consulting, challenging, or at least reflecting his opinions.