Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Li-ling remembers that, long ago, she and Ai-ming lay together on her bed, Ai-ming holding Chapter 17 of The Book of Records in her hands. The story continued even though Ai-ming had stopped reading from the page. Li-ling felt as though Zhuli, older than her but younger than Ai-ming, existed between the two of them. In fact, when they put the book down, Li-ling felt that Zhuli stayed in the room—Li-ling and Ai-ming were the ones to vanish.

In Shanghai, the September after Zhuli dies, the air is wet and carries the sickly smell of bodies left to rot in public. Ba Lute, again, has been taken by Red Guards and kept for a week—this time, when he returns, he can hardly stand. Sparrow has received a letter from Big Mother Knife saying that Wen the Dreamer and Swirl (“two bags of ribbon,” she wrote in the letter) have arrived safely in Mongolia. Ba Lute replies with only three sentences: “Everyone is fine. No need to hurry back. Long live Chairman Mao and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution!”

Two months later, Sparrow goes with Kai to a high-ranking Party official’s home: it seems like a whole different country, with stained glass windows and even a piano. The official serves them a feast and he suggests that Sparrow and Kai come perform with the Conservatory in Beijing. Afterward, Kai plays the piano, and the official tells him that the Beijing conductor has asked especially for Kai—not only is he the best pianist in Shanghai, but he comes from an “exemplary” class background.

That night, Sparrow sleeps with Kai in his bed. Kai suggests that they should take the official up on his offer and go perform in Beijing. Kai reminds Sparrow that Kai’s whole family has died because they came from a village considered so insignificant that the government did nothing to stop the famine that wiped out its population—and Kai won’t put himself through that again. But that night, Sparrow recognizes just how different he and Kai are. While Kai, in Sparrow’s eyes, is motivated by principally by fear, Sparrow is not. He sees Zhuli that night, and she seems so alive he wonders if he’s the one who is an illusion. She tells him, “The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that lives invisibly, that waits even after you close the book.” 

Kai leaves Shanghai that November to be a soloist in Beijing. Even in 1967, though, the Shanghai Conservatory remains closed—in spite of this fact, Sparrow is summoned to a meeting with He Luting’s replacement as head of the Conservatory, who tells Sparrow that he is being reassigned to work in a factory in the south of the country. When the new Conservatory head asks Sparrow why he turned down the position in Beijing, Sparrow simply says that he felt he was unworthy of the offer.

Back at home, Da Shan has come back from his stay with Ba Lute’s cousin and he is sitting at the kitchen table writing denunciations—his poster is four feet long. When Da Shan was with his extended family, to make up for the “impure elements within their family,” he led attacks on teachers and other classmates. Flying Bear, in turn, declared that Zhuli was guilty because only the guilty would kill themselves. He tells this to Sparrow, curious to hear his older brother’s response. When Sparrow doesn’t reply, Da Shan joins in, “Is it true?” he asks. “If Zhuli was really a traitor, she deserved everything that happened,” Da Shan says. Da Shan expects Sparrow to hit him, but all Sparrow does is put a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder and tell him to make sure he’s “worthy of the Red Guards.” “That’s your only family now, isn’t it?” he asks.

Da Shan bursts into tears. He tells Sparrow that he’s worse than Zhuli—at least Zhuli knew she was a traitor, he says, but in his eyes, Sparrow is a coward for doing nothing to protect her. Da Shan vows that the Red Guard will come after Sparrow next and that no one will be able to save him.

Sparrow soon begins working at a factory in the south making wooden crates. His body becomes strong and he is constantly covered in dust from the workshop. One day, Sparrow’s entire work unit is summoned to a meeting, where they watch the first live broadcast “struggle session” on television. Sparrow is shocked to recognize the Red Guards—former Conservatory students—who drag an elderly man onto the stage.  Sparrow recognizes the man as He Luting. As the crowd chants “Kill the traitor!” the Red Guards question their former teacher, but He Luting denies his guilt. As Sparrow watches the conductor being beaten, he remembers something He Luting once said to him: “Music that is immediately understood will not outlast its generation.” As He Luting shouts to the Guards, “Shame on you for lying!” the image on television disappears.

Eight months later, Chairman Mao declares that all universities be closed and that the educated, elite youth who were formerly students need to be sent to the countryside to experience rural poverty. In this movement, Sparrow, too, is relocated farther south, this time in the same city as Ling. When he runs into her at the train station, she tells him that Kai, now in Beijing, arranged for them to be placed in the same city.

Big Mother Knife returns to her family’s home in 1970, only to find them all missing. Ba Lute, she discovers, has been sent to a re-education camp. When Big Mother Knife visits Ba Lute, he reveals to her that Zhuli committed suicide—all of these years, he had been lying that Zhuli was still alive. Ba Lute tells Big Mother Knife that their own sons, Da Shan and Flying Bear, have denounced him and they want nothing to do with him. “But I have faith that Chairman Mao, our Great Leader, our Saving Star, will redeem us,” he adds. This is the only thing he has ever said that makes Big Mother Knife cry.