王安憶曾說自己不寫特殊環境、不寫特殊人物，評論者亦多將她放置於新中國先鋒書寫位置。然其長篇小說《天香》，將時空帶回迢遠、多情婉旎的江南，生活在其間的人們，他（她）們可以不為「仕途」、「功利」而奮鬥，只是純粹「玩物」；他（她）們有的是大把的時間與金錢，盡情揮霍人生；就在這外人看似荒唐無用的生活之中，創造了叫人驚艷的藝術絕活─天香園繡。從傷痕文學到反思、從尋根到先鋒、從新寫實到新歷史，《天香》顯示出王安憶創作的巨大轉變。王德威在書〈序〉提到：「王安憶是當代文壇重量級作家，憑她的文名，多寫幾部招牌作《長恨歌》式的小說不是難事。但她徒然將創作背景拉到她並不熟悉的晚明，挑戰不可謂不大。也正因為如此，她的用心值得我們注目。」是的，她眼神依然鍾情於上海，專注於平凡百姓，但卻在物質文化的傾注中，《天香》重疊「刺繡」織工與織品身世，重新溯述上海的繁華過往，進一步延續了古典小說《紅樓夢》與《金瓶梅》的物質書寫傳統，並開創出王安憶筆下女性書寫的另一章。
Heavenly Scent is Wang An-yi's latest fiction written in 2011 in which the scenario and characters are concerned with the quotidian as she usually portrays in Shanghai. However, the motif deals differently this time with ”embroidery”, a unique traditional handicraft in Chinese art that reflects not only the background of the artisans, but also the history of Chinese textiles. Heavenly Scent belongs to the same genre of material culture in Dream of the Red Chamber and The Golden Lotus digressing into the mainland Chinese modernity of the literatures of the ”wounded” , the ”roots”, and the ”avant garde”. My project will be a pioneering effort to trace and bridge materialism in classical literature and modern literature, and to study how material culture plays a vital role in Chinese modernist novels.
