Wang Anyi, now one of China’s most celebrated novelists, photographed on her balcony in her Shanghai home in 1988. Her early work already showed the emotional depth and observational nuance that would later define her writing, including her acclaimed novel The Song of Everlasting Sorrow.

Her relaxed pose and thoughtful expression reveal a writer confident in her voice, yet still at the beginning of a significant literary trajectory.

This portrait captures a formative moment in the career of one of China’s essential contemporary authors.