Argues that analysis of Australian poetic modernism in the 1940s has centred too much on the Ern Malley hoax. The essay attempts to redress this imbalance of attention in the history of Australian modernism, through a discussion of Webb's first major work.

The articles discusses the treatment and presentation of China in Jose's novels, on the background of the tradition of imaginative engagement with Asia by other Australian authors. It argues that although Jose subscribes at times both to the myth of Asia's mystery and to cliches of oriental mysticism, his work differs from previous generations of Australian novelists in that the author looks to the possibility of "Sino-Australian symbiosis" as part of a desirable, if utopian, aim. Thus his work testifies to a shift in emphasis in respect of cross-cultural pursuits and the post-colonial stance, possibly subverting the notion of a unitary national identity.