Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One Bildungsroman/Chengzhang Xiaoshuo as a Literary Genre -- Chapter Two The Changing Patterns of the Bildungsroman in Modern Chinese Literature -- Antecedents of the Bildungsroman: Zhuan in Pre-modern Chinese Literature -- Bildungsroman in Modern Chinese Literature -- Chapter Three Fallen Youth: A Solitary Outcast -- Coming of Age in the Toon Street Series -- Role Models and Peer Community -- A Failed Catcher in the Rye -- Sexuality, Violence and Death -- A Solitary Hero on the Street -- The Boat to Redemption -- Chapter Four Fallen Youth: A Trembling Loner -- A Degenerating and Helpless Parental Milieu -- Guanglin's Self-sufficient Peer Community -- Sexuality -- Time and Death-the End of Adolescence -- After Cries in the Drizzle -- Chapter Five Tragic and Parodistic Bildungsroman -- Farewell to Revolution -- Unfulfilled Bildung -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.