Abstract:The novel A Dream for Prosperity in Shanghai by SUN Yu-sheng has been considered as guidance for whoring and hence abandoned by the academic circle. However, if we take it as one which describes the rural folks going up to town, it then will be a typical text as the country fellows went in town in late Qing Dynasty. First, the title includes all the elements of rural folks going up to town, i.e. Shanghai as their goal, prosperity as their temptation, and dream as the process. Secondly, the author has designed carefully the details different from other similar novels to show the dualistic opposition between countryside and town. Thirdly, the author has adopted the alternative and circular structures, which profoundly reveal the subject of returning to homeland.