Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Individual Identity Under Communism
Class and Communism
Freedom of Expression vs. Propaganda
Political Oppression, Isolation, and Divided Communities
Storytelling, Family Connection, and History
Summary
Analysis
Sparrow and Ai-ming soon settle into a new apartment with Ling, just 15 minutes away from Tiananmen Square. On Ai-ming’s 18th birthday, she bikes past the square and admires the architecture and its bright color. She thinks to herself that since she was a child, “right and wrong [have] been represented by the Party through color. Truth and beauty, for instance, [are] hóng (red), while criminality and falsehood [are] hēi (black). Her mother [is] red, her father [is] black.” That night, Ling takes the whole family out to dinner to celebrate at a restaurant near the square. On the way back, they stop to have their picture taken in front of Tiananmen Gate. Ai-ming imagines that her family, dressed in “bland, inoffensive colors,” must look like a model family: her mother, a diligent party member, she, the good student, and her father, the factory worker.
In this moment, Ai-ming’s thinking about colors reminds readers of one of Zhuli’s dying wishes: that in the “next life” there be more colors. Ai-ming’s realization that the Party has used colors to connote simplistic, binary messages about good and bad reflects not only the lack of intellectual and moral complexity, but also the lack of artistic freedom to use colors to signify complex ideas. Thien repeats the motif of colors by highlighting the “bland, inoffensive” colors that the whole family wears in front of Tiananmen Square. Bland, in their society’s value system, is associated with good.
Themes
Back at home, Ai-ming dedicates all of her time to studying so she can pass the entrance exam at Beijing university. One of her neighbors, Yiwen, is a first-year student at Beijing Normal University and she gives Ai-ming her old textbooks so that Ai-ming can use them to study.
Presumably to Ai-ming’s class background—being the daughter of a “convicted rightist” up until this point in the story, there has been no mention of her having peers that embraced her as a friend.
Themes
One day while studying, Ai-ming hears news that Hu Yaobang, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, has died. When Sparrow arrives home from work, Ai-ming asks him if he wants to go and bring flowers to Tiananmen Square to mourn Yaobang’s death. She reminds him that Yaobang, when asked which of Chairman Mao’s policies might be relevant for modern China, said that none of them would be useful. Sparrow warns Ai-ming not to repeat such things, but Ai-ming resists: why can’t she say in private what the General Secretary has said openly? While she waits for her father to give her an answer about Tiananmen Square, she listens to the radio, on which Red Guards are denouncing the deceased Yaobang.
This moment is the first time in the story when a government official has publicly said something that the main characters agree with. While up until now Sparrow and his family have been quietly resisting and disagreeing with the Party’s policies and values, Ai-ming sees in Hu Yaobang a political figure who to some extent aligns with her own beliefs. This shows the way that the Party’s policies are changing, although the mention of the Red Guard propaganda blaring on the radio doesn’t speak to the same type of progress.
Themes
Outside, Ai-ming sees Yiwen walk by in a pink dress listening to a portable music set. Ai-ming thinks that Yiwen is very “modern and deeply Western” for listening to music that only she can hear. “Private music [leads] to private thoughts,” Ai-ming thinks. Sparrow says nothing about going to the square, and Ai-ming, although it is still early, goes to bed.
Yiwen freely wearing the color pink represents her courage in expressing herself through her appearance. From Zhuli’s experience with being persecuted for the way she dresses, readers know that Yiwen’s “modern” and “Western” ways can be dangerous.
Themes
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The next morning, Ai-ming runs into Yiwen at the apartment building’s water spigot. Yiwen asks her if she plans to go to Tiananmen Square that day, and when Ai-ming asks why, Yiwen assumes she’s joking and laughs. That night, Ai-ming sees Yiwen again at the water tap, this time washing dishes. Yiwen tells Ai-ming, whom she calls a “little country girl,” about Western rock music. She asks her to come to the square tomorrow, and Ai-ming agrees. In the middle of the night, though, she hears Yiwen’s parents screaming at her—they are angry that she protested the government in the middle of the night and got arrested. “You had the Revolution to believe in!” Yiwen yells at her parents. “But what do we have?”
Yiwen’s character development reveals her to be a representation of the younger generation’s critical thinking and greater courage in resistance than the generation that precedes them. Her affinity for Western rock music parallels Sparrow and Zhuli’s affinity for Western classical music, and, with the Cultural Revolution long over, no one is taking away her right to enjoy the music that she privately listens to. Her outburst at her parents likely speaks to Ai-ming’s experience as well—while many in the older generation gave their lives to revolution, their children have little to believe in.
Themes
The next day, Ling goes to Yaobang’s funeral procession, but Ai-ming decides to stay home with Sparrow. The two have a long, slow breakfast, Sparrow reading the newspaper and Ai-ming studying. They listen to the radio coverage of the funeral procession: apparently, Tiananmen Square has been closed for the day. Suddenly, though, Sparrow says that he wants to go to the funeral procession, and Ai-ming agrees to accompany him. As they bicycle their way to the event, Ai-ming reveals a dream to her father: she wants to go and study in Canada, or maybe even the United States. Sparrow doesn’t have anything to say in response, and in that moment, the two are swept up into a chanting crowd of young people. In call-and-response format, the crowd yells, “Do we love our country? Yes! Are we willing to sacrifice our future for the Chinese people? Yes!”
In this moment, the courage of Ai-ming’s generation shines through. Their willingness to utilize their right to free speech even under such a historically oppressive government demonstrates, if anything, their commitment to revolution and to building the best China that they possibly can. In this moment, freedom of speech and freedom of expression are more powerful than the propaganda that would seek to oppress them. In fact, that the government feels the need to close Tiananmen Square suggests that the higher-ups feel threatened by the new uprising among China’s youth, which speaks to the movement’s power.
Themes
Ai-ming and Sparrow discover that the night before, 100,000 students had slept in Tiananmen Square because they wanted to be able to use the Square to pay their respects to Hu Yaobang, and yet the government announced that the Square was to be closed that day. What’s more, three young men had knelt on the stairs of the Great Hall of the People, holding a petition in the air for the government to read. They wanted a representative from the government to come and meet them, but none arrived. Meanwhile, the Beijing citizens all around the students screamed at them to stand up—why should they choose to meet the government on their knees, as if they were children, and the government their punishing father?
The students’ choice to meet the government on their knees says a lot about the way that this younger generation views the government. Kneeling before officials—the same officials who claim to espouse communist values, under which all people would be equal—demonstrates that the students recognize the government as a paternalistic authority figure. This, in turn, highlights the ways in which it is hypocritical for a government that seeks to establish equality to severely oppress its people.
Themes
The demonstrators pass, and Sparrow and Ai-ming return to the topic of studying in Canada. Sparrow tells Ai-ming that he and Ling don’t want her to be so far away, but Ai-ming says that they could come with her. She reminds him of his own dream, which he told her when she was young: to go abroad, write his own music, and hear others play. According to Ai-ming, things are changing: the students’ actions in response to Yaobang’s death are evidence of this. These reforms, Ai-ming thinks, will give new opportunities to people like her father, who were, in her words, “unfairly treated.” But Sparrow tells his daughter that he has chosen his life the way it is. They stand together in Tiananmen Square, where Ai-ming feels “confusingly large,” even though “the architecture [is] intended to make a person feel insignificant.”
It is almost as if Ai-ming has inherited her father’s dreams: although he couldn’t go and live abroad, she feels that she might have the opportunity to do so. Thien’s choice to link Ai-ming’s dreams with her father’s illustrates the strength of their connection. What’s more, Ai-ming’s analysis of Tiananmen Square’s architecture—that it seeks to make people feel small—suggests that her interest in the power of the individual remains. She cannot be subdued by the repressive architecture, and, conversely, feels that due to the protests’ message she is finally able to express herself sincerely.
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