Lu Xun (1881-1936) published A Madman’s Diary (1918) at the height of a Nietzsche craze in China. His creative genius, powerful intellect and writing style, and profound erudition in Western philosophy and literature contributed to his effortlessly writing this first example of ‘modern Chinese literature’. This short story was ‘modern’ because it was written in the vernacular language instead of the classical Chinese language, it addressed contemporary issues, and it was informed by modern Western literary models.