With the help of the French writer Roger Garaudy’s (1913–2012) book By Boundless Realism, this article will further explore the experience of contemporary socialist literature, involving such important issues as the relationships between literature and reality, the masses, and traditional literature. By Boundless Realism is Garaudy’s response to the mistakes and crises existing in socialist literary theory and practice. “Boundless,” the key word of this book, challenges dogmatic prohibitions, arguing that when socialist realism is in crisis, remaining self-contained is not an option. The issues raised by Garaudy have also been presented in the practice of contemporary Chinese socialist literature, in different forms and to varying extents.