She only spent two years in the countryside, and during that time she was able to visit home frequently. Even so, the sensitive young writer was deeply affected. According to Lu Cheng-huei, a professor in the Chinese department at National Tsinghua University, "These past ten years, as she has approached middle age, Wang Anyi has written almost exclusively about disillusionment."
儘管王安憶只下鄉兩年，又經常可以回到上海老家，然而在這樣的時代下成長，加上她特別纖細敏感的個性，「越到中年的近十年，王安憶幾乎都在寫一種人生的『幻滅感』」，清華大學中文系教授呂正惠指出。