Do Not Say We Have Nothing
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| Author | Madeleine Thien |
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| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
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Publication date
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2016 |
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Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home.
The novel begins with a girl named Marie living with her mother in Vancouver, Canada. The year is 1991, and the addition to their household of a Chinese refugee fleeing the post-Tiananmen Square crackdown, Ai-Ming, is the catalyst that sets the rest of the plot into motion. The novel quickly fractures into a number of different sub-plots, introduced by Ai-Ming, which span generations of both Marie and Ai-Ming’s families, who are later revealed to be intrinsically connected. These sub-plots are set during a tumultuous period in China’s history, from the beginning of Mao Zedong's reign in the late 1940s to the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. There are four main eras that the novel focuses on, though they do not necessarily occur in chronological order. The first involves Big Mother Knife, her sister Swirl, and Swirl's husband Wen the Dreamer during the land reform campaign and the executions that were involved. Secondly is the era focusing on Sparrow, Kai and Zhuli during the Cultural Revolution which centers around the Shanghai Conservatory and their experiences there. Thirdly is Sparrow and Ai-Ming, his daughter, during the Tiananmen Square protests and aftermath. Finally, the last era is the “present” which is Marie discovering her connection to all these stories. As well, the story contained in the Book of Records is a constant presence throughout all these other narratives. While Wen the Dreamer is the principle translator and contributor to the book, as the novel progresses the stories of all the characters become so incorporated into the Book of Records that the line is blurred between fact and fiction, past and present.
Thien references numerous songs and texts from Chinese history. This includes Sima Qian's "Historical Records." The title, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, is a reference to the Chinese version of the left-wing anthem: “The Internationale,” which has been a staple anthem of the Communist Party of China after Qu Qiubai’s translation of the Russian version in 1923. Within the plot of the novel this anthem occurs at numerous points, particularly as a rallying cry for the student protesters at Tienanmen Square, at which Ai-Ming and Sparrow were present: “The people around her were weeping. At the front, the student leaders began to sing the Internationale.” (Thien 438). Also referenced in the novel is the song “The East is Red,” which was used as the unofficial national anthem during the Cultural Revolution, within which many of the events in the Kai and Sparrow’s subplots occur. Additionally "Song of the Guerrillas," a Chinese anthem that describes Chinese guerrilla fighters during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In a 2017 interview, Thien created a 'Book Note' playlist that included numerous musical artists who influenced her writing of the novel. These artists included J.S. Bach, Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sisamouth, Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Cohen, and Sun Belt.
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