The first book-length study in English of an important but neglected school of dissident Chinese writers active around the time of the war against Japan (1937-45).

Buglers on the Home Front studies an important, yet under-examined group of dissident writers active in Chinese leftist literary circles around the time of the war against Japan (1937-45). Writers studied include Hu Feng (the spiritual leader of the school), Cao Bai, Qiu Dongping, A Long, Jia Zhifang, Lu Ling, and Ji Pang. As the first book-length study in English of the Qiyue school, it utilizes a broad range of primary and secondary sources and combines a variety of approaches and concerns--intellectual history, political history, literary history, and literary criticism--to introduce an overlooked dissenting voice in modern Chinese literature.

The book's investigation of the roles of subjectivity and domestic cultural criticism reveal the tensions within an environment generally known for its homogenization by nationalist sentiments on the one hand and by Marxist discourse on the other.

While situating the Qiyue school historically and relationally, Buglers on the Home Front not only revises the general impression of China's wartime literature but also uses the school as an example to call attention to the crucial influence of cultural politics on modern literature.