Most historians have long since moved beyond the old view that for China to become a “modern society” it must turn its back completely on the values, behavior patterns, and cultural traits that characterised Chinese life for centuries. But there is still a sense, at least among the general run of people, that while conspicuous pockets of China’s old culture persist — one thinks of such things as acupuncture and tai chi — these things aren’t to be compared in importance to, say, the industrial revolution the country has undergone in recent decades or its growing military power. I want to challenge this view in my talk by calling attention to a manifestation of Chinese culture that, although immensely important, is largely sealed off from the eyes of foreigners — and may often, for an entirely different set of reasons, also be given insufficient weight by the Chinese themselves. I refer to the great variety of old stories, some of them distinctly secular, others deeply embedded in the religious beliefs and practices of the country, that have continued to play a vital part in the modernising China of the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. These stories supply essential data about the interior of the Chinese world. They form an undercurrent of intellectual/psychic meaning that flows beneath the surface of conventionally recounted history. But Westerners certainly — and perhaps Chinese as well — if we are to gain a deeper and fuller understanding of China, need to do a much better job of mapping the stories and illuminating how they fit into the larger picture of Chinese life.