作为中国近代“留学生文学”的开山之作,《留东外史》的问世,无论对中国还是对日本,都是一个极大的尴尬。这部洋洋一百余万言的巨著,在对日本不可救药的误读中,凸显了中国人精神的负面与深刻的道德危机,还有恶劣的中日关系下两种文化令人遗憾的互动。这部以东京为舞台、以中国留学生和海外亡命客为暴露对象的异域小说,主要写了两件事: As a pioneer in modern China and “foreign student literature,” the advent of “leaving the history of the outside world” is a great embarrassment for both China and Japan. In a misunderstanding of Japan’s hopelessness, this over one million words of great monograph highlights the negative and profound moral crisis of the Chinese spirit and the regrettable nature of the two cultures under the harsh Sino-Japanese relations interactive. This foreign novel featuring Tokyo as the stage and Chinese students and overseas destitutes as the target of exposure mainly wrote two things: