Do Not Say We Have Nothing Character Analysis

Marie / Jiang Li-ling

The narrator of the book, Li-ling is Kai’s daughter who is born in Canada. Distraught and lonely after her father’s suicide, 10-year-old Li-ling welcomes the arrival of Ai-ming in her life when Ai-ming comes… read analysis of Marie / Jiang Li-ling

Ai-ming

Sparrow and Ling’s daughter. Ai-ming grows up alone with her father and her grandmother, Big Mother Knife, in the south of China. From the time Ai-Ming is a little girl, she dreams of… read analysis of Ai-ming

Zhuli

Sparrow’s cousin and Swirl and Wen the Dreamer’s daughter. Born into Wen the Dreamer’s wealthy family, Zhuli only enjoys her family’s prosperity for a few short years before they lose everything in the… read analysis of Zhuli

Jiang Kai

Li-ling’s father and Sparrow’s friend. As a child, Jiang Kai lives in a village that is severely impacted by the famines immediately following the Communist Revolution. He loses his whole family before going… read analysis of Jiang Kai

Sparrow

Ai-ming’s father and Big Mother Knife and Ba Lute’s son. As a young man, Sparrow is an accomplished musician who teaches at the Shanghai Conservatory. Sparrow eats, sleeps, and breaths music and he… read analysis of Sparrow

Big Mother Knife

Sparrow, Flying Bear, and Da Shan’s mother; Ba Lute’s wife; and Swirl’s sister. Big Mother Knife is born during the Chinese Civil War and she grows up performing as a… read analysis of Big Mother Knife

Swirl

Big Mother Knife’s sister, Wen the Dreamer’s wife, and Zhuli’s mother. Like Big Mother Knife, Swirl grows up traveling and performing during the war. She has a beautiful voice, and her singing… read analysis of Swirl

Wen the Dreamer

Swirl’s husband and Zhuli’s father. Born into a wealthy, rural family, Wen the Dreamer never went hungry, even when other members of his village starved. Although his mother hoped he would grow up… read analysis of Wen the Dreamer

Ling

Ai-ming’s mother. As a young woman, Ling studies philosophy at Beijing University and she forms part of an underground study group that resists Chairman Mao’s regime. This is where she meets Sparrow, her… read analysis of Ling

Ba Lute

Sparrow, Flying Bear, and Da Shan’s father and Big Mother Knife’s husband. At the beginning of the Communist Revolution, Ba Lute is a proud revolutionary. He returns from the Civil War… read analysis of Ba Lute

Old Cat

Ling’s aunt and the owner of a bookstore. The Old Cat hosts regular meetings for people who resist the Communist regime and who want to read books that Chairman Mao has tried to forbid… read analysis of Old Cat

He Luting

The director of the Shanghai Conservatory when Sparrow is a teacher there. He Luting is stubborn and obstinate, dedicated to playing Western music that he thinks is of high quality even when the government criticizes… read analysis of He Luting

Da Shan

One of Sparrow’s younger brothers. During the Cultural Revolution, Da Shan is sent to live with one of his mother’s family members in a different province, There, to compensate for his family’s image as… read analysis of Da Shan

Li-ling’s mother

Li-ling’s mother and Kai’s wife. She dies of cancer while her daughter is still in her twenties. After her husband’s suicide, she becomes obsessed with going through the paperwork he left behind—this is… read analysis of Li-ling’s mother

Yiwen

Ai-ming’s first real friend and a student at Beijing Normal University during the Tiananmen Square riots. Yiwen is a dedicated member of the student protests and she does many things that Ai-ming, raised in… read analysis of Yiwen

Lady Dostoevsky

Swirl’s friend from the re-education camps. Lady Dostoevsky is a prominent translator of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s literary works and she is sent to the re-education camps for her love of Western culture. There, during the… read analysis of Lady Dostoevsky

Tofu Liu

Zhuli’s friend and fellow music student at the Conservatory. Also the child of “counterrevolutionaries,” Tofu identifies with Zhuli’s fear at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and the two of them decide to practice… read analysis of Tofu Liu

Comrade Glass Eye

A friend of Ba Lute’s from his days as a Communist Revolutionary. When Sparrow has the chance to travel to the countryside to collect folk songs for the Shanghai Conservatory, Ba Lute tells him… read analysis of Comrade Glass Eye

Minor Characters

Flying Bear

One of Sparrow’s younger brothers. During the Cultural Revolution, he denounces Zhuli, thinking that since she killed herself, she must be guilty of being a rightist—which is what the Red Guards accused her of. Eventually, Flying Bear joins the People’s Liberation Army and he denounces his whole family.

Da Ge

Wen the Dreamer’s uncle and a wealthy property owner in the village. During the Land Reform Movement, he is executed along with his brothers on the stage at the village school in front of an angry mob.