Tixiao Yinyuan ("Fate in Tears and Laughter") garnered wide popularity after the author, popular novelist Zhang Henshui, first serialized it on newspaper, in several installments, and then published a book, in the late 1920s and early '30s.

The entanglement between Fan Jiashu, a young man from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who pursued higher education in Beijing, and three women he encountered in life, resonated deeply with readers. People were torn between the uncertainty of fate and complexity of one's feelings. They felt empathy of the protagonists whose destinies were influenced by social darkness and a turbulent time.