For one thing, it was difficult to adjust to conditions in the countryside after growing up in a big city. For another, the village she went to had already been infected by a money-grubbing, dog-eat-dog mentality. The people there were not the honest, kindhearted peasants she had been expecting to find. "All of a sudden, I had no direction in life.
王安憶解釋，一來是從都市到農村，生活環境很不適應，而且她插隊的地方已經受商業氣息影響，農民是現實而非想像中的溫厚憨直。