Chien admits that she is a kind of person who "accepts everything." Although she has never self-consciously embraced the "native soil" movement of Taiwanese literature initiated by Japanese-era author Wu Chuo-liu, she participated in a cultural exchange in mainland China 13 years ago that sparked her own interest about how blood and place of origin affect one's point of view.
簡媜承認自己是個「照單全收」型的人，書寫歷程中並未受到吳濁流以降對「鄉土文學」自覺的影響，但在 13 年前，一次前往中國大陸的文化交流中，卻引發自己對血緣來處與現時立足點的好奇。