Set in the narrative space of Beijing, Xu Zechen’s(徐则臣) urban fiction focuses on the living conditions of marginalized groups during the process of urbanization. In his works, the “Beijing drifters” attempt to construct a temporary “home” through spontaneous arrangements such as shared rentals and mutual assistance. These “mimetic families” reconstruct a traditional ethical order within the atomized urban environment, forming provisional collectives that embody both utopian ideals and pragmatic struggles. This phenomenon reveals the formation, transformation, and internal tensions of the collectivist ethics of mutual aid against the backdrop of urbanization. The “mimetic family” functions not only as a survival strategy for drifters resisting urban alienation but also as a transformed projection of the traditional “differential mode of association” in the metropolitan context. While these families rely on collectivity to seek a sense of belonging, they also face identity crises due to conflicts of interest and ethical disorder. Xu’s writing transcends mere social criticism, shifting instead to an exploration of the possibility of coexistence between the individual and the collective within the predicament of modernity, thereby attempting to comprehend the cultural transformation in China’s urbanization through a literary lens.