Do Not Say We Have Nothing: Chapter 4 (II) Summary & Analysis

One day, Yiwen asks Ai-ming if she wants to join her in going to another student protest. The demonstrations have been continuing ever since Yaobang’s death. Ai-ming studies in the morning, but as soon as her parents leave for work, she grabs her bike and pedals off to find Yiwen at the protest. When she comes close to Tiananmen Square, the crowd is so thick that she thinks it was silly for her to imagine that she would be able to find Yiwen in such a dense demonstration.

All around Ai-ming, people are shouting, protesting the way that the government and the media have labelled them a “mob” that seeks to destroy the rule of socialism in China. “We are not a mob, we are civilized members of society!” one declares. “The People love the People’s strike!” The students declare. Ai-ming thinks to herself that the students aren’t asking for “anything impossible […] just room to move, to grow up and be free, and for the Party to criticize itself.” Soon, Ai-ming sees a pink headband standing out in the crowd and she thinks she sees Yiwen in the crowd below. Before Ai-ming knows it, she is in the middle of the protest, by Yiwen’s side. When Yiwen turns and sees her, she hugs Ai-ming, brushing her mouth against Ai-ming’s hair. Ai-ming thinks to herself that because of Sparrow’s political status, she has never had a real friend before.

Meanwhile, Ling is riding the bus home from work. When the bus reaches the area near Tiananmen Square, it comes to a standstill—there are so many people in the streets that the vehicle can no longer move. Someone tells Ling that the student protesters have broken through 3,000 police. Ling arrives home and knocks on Ai-ming’s door: inside, she finds Sparrow writing music. He asks Ling what the students are asking for, and she responds that she thinks the students don’t know anymore. The radio, she says, has compared the students to Red Guards, but the students don’t agree. In fact, no one agrees with the comparison. Ling confides in Sparrow that she doesn’t know why their generation let the Party decide everything for them: their entire fates, where they live, where they work. Sparrow isn’t able to form a full response before Ai-ming bursts into the apartment.

Sparrow is angry at Ai-ming. “How can I protect you?” he yells. He says that the government is right—the student protesters are like the Red Guards. They think they have the right to try and change everything, in Sparrow’s eyes. He recalls how the Red Guards have taken everything from him—Zhuli, Da Shan, Flying Bear.

In the coming days, Sparrow is overwhelmed by the political climate—the protests have reached his workplace. He becomes unable to sleep at night. Sparrow takes to roaming the streets, using a Walkman cassette player that Ai-ming gave him to listen to music as he wanders. One evening, he walks into Beijing University and he sees the place covered with posters that students have written. He remembers the posters that covered the Conservatory in his youth—“We will carry the socialist revolution through to the end!”—and he compares them with those written by members of Ai-ming’s generation, like “Democracy takes time to achieve, it cannot be accomplished overnight.” A student protester sees Sparrow and, thinking the older man is a spy, demands that he leave. As Sparrow backs away, he trips over a poster that reads, “A society that speaks with only one voice is not a stable society.”

Kai has written to Sparrow, asking him to meet him in Hong Kong in the coming weeks. Sparrow responds that he will. He wonders if Kai can help his family achieve a better future—Kai, now living in Canada, might be able to sponsor Ai-ming, for instance, if she were to study there. Such a thing would change his life, Sparrow thinks; but then again, wasn’t society changing all around him? Beijing University students have boycotted classes for a month, and there are no signs of that changing soon.

Sparrow is composing music in Ai-ming’s room when he hears on the radio that the students in Tiananmen Square have begun a hunger strike. The next day at work, no one at Sparrow’s factory can focus—they hardly put together any radios. Many of his coworkers are joining an independent workers’ union, completely unconnected with the government. Sparrow hasn’t yet signed on. He’s focused on his upcoming trip to Hong Kong, to see Kai—it’s the first time in his life that he will travel outside of China. At the factory, a coworker tells Sparrow that he looks unwell and that he should go home, so Sparrow leaves and pedals around the city, worried that he is looking so old that people call him Grandfather when he is not yet 50.

Although Sparrow didn’t mean to go to Tiananmen Square, he finds himself pedaling in the direction of the student protest. He enters the square where hundreds of students are lying on the ground, behind the Monument of the People’s Heroes. He thinks to himself that “the hunger strikers [have] the brightest futures in the entire country”—Beijing University is the most prestigious institution of higher learning, and the students are destined for good jobs that will likely enable them to support their family members for the rest of their lives. As Sparrow thinks, a young man comes up to him and asks him to leave—for the security of the “hunger strike revolutionaries,” only students are allowed in the square.

The next evening, Ai-ming comes home, crying. Sparrow, not knowing how to support her, gives her candy—he knows that she has been pretending to be a student and sleeping in Tiananmen Square this whole time. Ai-ming tells him that many students have lost consciousness due to the hunger strikes, that they are on IV drips. Some are even threatening to set themselves on fire. The government had planned for a festival in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the first visit from a Soviet government head since 1959, but the celebration had been cancelled. The next morning, Sparrow joins his fellow factory workers at a demonstration and he imagines what Zhuli, whom the Red Guards accused of so many things, would have thought of this moment. Ai-ming, he thinks to himself, is coming of age in a different China.

At home, Sparrow occupies himself writing music. He has finished a draft of a new composition: he’s decided to call it The Sun Shines Down on the People’s Square. He has written it not thinking of the contemporary Tiananmen Square of 1989, but rather of “the square courtyards of the laneway house, the sheets of Zhuli’s music, the square record jackets he [has] burned.” He is working on the piece one night when Ai-ming interrupts him to say she and Ling are going to help Yiwen bring blankets to the Square. She asks Sparrow if he would like to come along, and he agrees. When the family arrives on bikes at the square, only Ai-ming is allowed to enter, and Sparrow watches her run ahead and talk to Yiwen.

At that moment, an old man runs up to Ling and Sparrow and he announces that the new independent workers’ union has called for all of the workers of the city to participate in a general strike. Ling whispers, “How do they dare? How do we dare?” Soon after, a student shouts that the General Secretary and Premier of the Party are going to arrive soon at the hunger strike. Ai-ming, crying, comes out of the crowd to be with her parents, and Ling leads them to a restaurant to eat. When they finish around three a.m., students are dragging speakers around to broadcast the results of their meeting with the Party heads.

The Party’s spokesperson begins to speak into the microphone, and all over the city, the people listen. He begins his statement with an apology, saying that the criticisms the Party has received are justified. But he tells the students that it is foolish to continue on a hunger strike until they have “a satisfactory answer.” He reminds them that they have long futures ahead of them—by risking their lives for a hunger strike, he says, they are acting irrationally, and “under irrational circumstances, it is hard to think clearly.” The General Secretary proposes that the government will continue the dialogue if the students agree to end the hunger strike. When the broadcast ends, Ling is crying. Ai-ming asks Sparrow, “What does it mean?” When her parents don’t respond, she says she wants to leave, and Sparrow leads his family back home, through the dark. 

The next morning, Yiwen tells Ai-ming that the spokesperson who addressed the students the night before had been removed from office. There were protests in 151 Chinese cities, and the government was going to declare martial law. As she and Sparrow eat breakfast, Ai-ming tells him she will continue studying for the national entrance exams. Sparrow finally reveals to her that he plans to visit Kai that coming month and he even suggests that Kai might be able to sponsor Ai-ming to go study in Canada. When Sparrow leaves for the factory, though, Ai-ming pulls on one of Yiwen’s dresses and she goes to the courtyard to gather Yiwen’s dried clothes, along with a toothbrush and washcloth, into a bag. She jumps on her bicycle and leaves home.

Getting to Tiananmen Square is no easy task. As Ai-ming navigates through the city, she comes across areas so full of traffic that no one can pass through. Her bike gets a flat tire; desperate, she hops on the first bus that passes her. The army has arrived in the city, and all around Ai-ming, people of all ages are yelling at the soldiers, trying to get them to leave. She even sees “an ancient grandmother [who has] taken it upon herself to lie down in the road. ‘Who are you retaking the streets from, eh?’ she [says] hoarsely.”

When Ai-ming gets to the square, she can’t see Yiwen anywhere—it is only around 10 at night that Ai-ming finds her. The hunger strike was officially called off that afternoon, so Ai-ming takes Yiwen and two of her friends to a noodle stand. Unsure what to do now that the strike is over, the girls are desperate. One thinks that going back to university might be a trap; another feels that the students can’t lose Tiananmen Square, which is their “headquarters.” Ai-ming marvels at how the students are talking about fighting the army, using military terms.

At the next table, two girls sing a Cultural Revolution song. “All these songs,” Yiwen says. “I thought they were real.” Ai-ming responds that the songs are “just words,” and one of Yiwen’s friends responds, calmly, “But what else did we have?” Once the girls have finished eating, Ai-ming continues to think about the songs of the Cultural Revolution. She thinks about how once, “idealism had belonged to Chairman Mao […] had their generation inherited it? How could a person know the difference between what [is] real and what [is] merely illusion, or see when a truth has transformed into its opposite?” After leaving the restaurant, Ai-ming and Yiwen go to sleep on the ground in front of the army trucks.

Meanwhile, Sparrow is biking home from the factory late at night. The streets are congested by the army—when Sparrow sees how many trucks there are, he almost falls off his bicycle. He smells bonfires and he remembers the time, years ago when on his way home from the secret meeting Kai invited him to, he saw a university professor being publicly humiliated in the streets, surrounded by bonfires. Now, it is morning by the time Sparrow gets home, and neither Ling nor Ai-ming are there. Sparrow drinks tea and turns on the radio, which isn’t playing music; rather, the radio simply replays the announcement of martial law. Hearing this, Sparrow “regret[s] all of the radios he [has] ever built.”

Sparrow falls asleep and he wakes that afternoon to see Ai-ming looming over him. She announces that representatives from Sparrow’s factory have come. When Sparrow meets his coworkers in the living room, they request that he join the independent union with them. The three of them set off on their bicycles to register as part of the union, where Sparrow “sign[s] his name below thousands of others.” Outside is Tiananmen Square, and Sparrow goes to observe the students. The area smells terrible and the students look completely destitute. Things get worse when a heavy rain breaks out, destroying the few protections the students have. Before Sparrow’s coworkers come to get him, he sees a girl with a pink headband and he wonders if it is Yiwen.

Sparrow’s new union is planning to form a barricade at the demonstration, and he is assigned to Muxidi Bridge, very close to home. Ling joins their neighbors in handing out snacks to the protesters. In the past week, Ling has thrown herself into her work at the radio station—rather than waiting for approval from higher-ups and the government, she and many of her colleagues have gone ahead and taken the students’ side in radio broadcasting. Sparrow remembers the “sharp-eyed philosophy student” Ling was when they met and he thinks to himself that she “[has] been biding her time and here she [is] now, as if she [has] never been away.” Indeed, Sparrow wonders how many people all across the city have now decided to shed the many layers of disguise they had habitually worn in all of the years since the Cultural Revolution.

Just as Sparrow is beginning to battle sleep, the People’s Liberation Army begins to retreat. The soldiers, laughing and crying, wave as they back out of the neighborhood. That day, Ai-ming comes home and she offers to cook for her family. In response to the army leaving, the students have planned a full retreat from Tiananmen Square. But the celebration is short-lived—later that same night, the radio announces that the students have changed their minds and they will stay in the square until the Party conference on June 20, the same day Sparrow plans to visit Kai in Hong Kong.