The book analyzes aspects of intellectual life and cultural practices in the New Culture era of modern China by examining an influcential newspaper supplement published in Beijing during 1918-1928, along with other contemporary sources. It highlights a key intellectual-moral paradox in Chinese disourses between cosmopolitanism as an idealistic aspiration and nationalism as a practical imparative, both in complext relationship to indivudialism, and in constant negotiations between Chinese tradition and Western culture in the making of Chinese modernity. It argues for a re-consideration and re-appreciation of the New Culture era in modern Chinese history, as the issues treated in the book remain relevant to China and the world today.