Wang's works

Baotown (1989)

Set in vague time and location, Baotown depicts life in a small village after a flood. Wang Anyi tested her writing style, a variation from the grand narration popular at that time. The work echoes the Xungen (searching the root) Movement popular in the late 1980s, which held that Chinese identity needs to be reconstructed through appreciation of local cultures after being destroyed in the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). What Wang is trying to emphasize is the traditional benevolence and uprightness of rural society.

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (1995)

Wang's most famous novel features Wang Qiyao, winner of an old-Shanghai beauty pageant. The "modern Shanghai epic" traces her life story from the 1940s all the way till the 1990s.

Scent of Heaven (2011)

The novel traces the lives and fates of the members of a family over the course of six generations from the pinnacle of their wealth and power in the late 16th century through their decline over the Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Wang says she was touched by a real story about the big family, known for a special embroidering skill. It depicts women struggling to balance life, support their men, and pass down the needlework skill, as well as the vitality from their creative art.