Four Generation under one roof by Lao She and Riverside Scenes by Park Taewon are representative novels with setting of capital city of China and Korea. Beijing and Seoul, both were in transition stage which had been brought on colonial economy and the invasion of an alien race. Park and Lao realistically recorded the life of common people which showed social changes and crises. So both novels were called as the novel of social conditions or the novel of the popular mind. Especially Riverside Scenes provoked sever disputes over how the novel of social conditions reflects reality, right after published. Both novels described popular custom of life but the way of narration of each novel is different. It was originated from the difference of concept on 'social conditions', the difference of cultural property of city and each unique factor which was related with the process of modernization of novel. Calmly describing popular life, Park secretly revealed contradiction of city life in Seoul. He described pains of people who lived along “Cheonggyecheon” riverside in detail using method of modernism. On the other hand, counting on realism, Lao She searched for pains and evils of residents of Hutong(胡同) in Beijing. Because May Fourth spirit of enlightenment which were as strong as ever in 1940’s still had a influence on his writing, so his subject was more vividly expressed than Park’s. The second, Park and Lao as natives had special feelings on the city culture. These feelings made special relation between writer and object. Due to wide knowledge, they could put the various cultural state into their works. Their intensive concerns in roles of popular custom and language in novels also made them do the same thing. This articles is to try to answer some questions about the modern novel of social condition, for example could these two novels be taken as the novel of social condition, what kinds of values does the modern novel of social condition have, and how did these two novelist express feeling about the culture of modern city. In addition, I researched their critical view on the culture of city with comparing these two novels.