In his choice of these genres, and by defining his period of investigation at the late Ching to the present day, David Wang not only objectively grasps how the basic distinctive essence of the contemporary and modern Chinese novel is in the emergence and evolution of the modern consciousness which is unfolded within its pages; in fact he also displays how his subjective concern is the entire flood torrent of China's headlong progress toward modernization.
王德威在這幾種小說次文類的選擇上，以及將追索的期間斷自晚清以迄當代，其實不只是客觀的掌握了中國近、現代小說的基本特質，正在於其中展現的現代意識的形成與衍變；事實上更顯示了他的主觀關懷，正是浩浩前移的中國現代化過程的整體洪流。