This paper argues from an institutional perspective that the distinction between serious literature and popular literature is a function of the changing modes of literary production, distribution, and consumption. Before the '80s, the existence of book rentals had served as an easy marker that differentiated popular literature from serious literature. Since the '80s, the emergense of the culture industry has expanded the scope of upper-middle culture, thus bringing about the blurring of boundaries between high culture and popular culture. Serious literature has lost its dominant position and has to compete with the proliferation of new cultural genres and products. This article further explores how the changing relationship between high culture and popular culture affects intellectuals' positions and engages them in a symbolic power struggle against the culture industry.