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Wen the Dreamer
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 future husband, for the first time—but the two are separated for a long time during the Cultural Revolution. Eventually, Kai, one of Ling’s childhood friends and Sparrow’s student from the Conservatory, pulls strings in Beijing to get Ling and Sparrow placed in the same city through their work. Soon after Ai-ming is born, Ling’s job at a radio station sends her back to Beijing, and she lives most of her life in isolation from her family. When Sparrow and Ai-ming move to Beijing so that Ai-ming can study at Beijing University, Ling is grateful to have her family all living together. But their days as a family are numbered: soon, the political protests in Beijing culminate in a military massacre of thousands of people in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, in which Sparrow is shot and killed. Although Ai-ming gives up on looking for Sparrow’s body three weeks after the massacre, Ling keeps looking. Eventually, she realizes that Ai-ming has no future in China and she writes to Li-ling’s mother, asking them to provide a home for Ai-ming in Canada.
Ling Quotes in Do Not Say We Have Nothing
The Do Not Say We Have Nothing quotes below are all either spoken by Ling or refer to Ling . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6 (II) Quotes
In the new trousers, baby blue shirt, and leather shoes that Ling had given him for the 1988 Spring Festival, her father looked taller. Or, maybe he only looked this way because, when he wore his usual clothes, the uniform of Huizhou Semiconductor Factory No. 1, Sparrow never stood up straight.
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Chapter 5 (II) Quotes
For as long as she could remember, right and wrong had been represented by the Party through color. Truth and beauty, for instance, were hóng (red), while criminality and falsehood were hēi (black). Her mother was red, her father was black.
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Coda Quotes
I continue to live my life, to let my parents go and seek my own freedom. I will wait for Ai-ming to find me and I continue to believe that I will find her—tomorrow, perhaps, or in a dozen years. She will reach up for a book on a shelf. […] And when she does, she will disbelieve and then a line will come back to her, words she overheard on the street long ago but has never fully forgotten. Tomorrow beings from another dawn, when we will be fast asleep. Remember what I say; not everything will pass.
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Ling Character Timeline in Do Not Say We Have Nothing
The timeline below shows where the character Ling appears in Do Not Say We Have Nothing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
...the conversation turns to books. Most of the people are foreign. A young woman named Ling picks up a book by Fredrich Schiller and begins to read aloud. Someone requests a...
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...around Zhuli’s neck, gather her in his arms, and carry her home. He ran into Ling on the way, and she walked with him—the two passed many Red Guards, but Sparrow...
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Chapter 8
...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...
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Chapter 6 (II)
...Ai-ming has grown up with Sparrow and her grandmother, Big Mother Knife. Since Ai-ming’s mother, Ling, has been transferred to Shanghai for work, Ai-ming often turns to her grandmother as a...
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...her father talk so much to anybody in his life. Jiang Kai brings news about Ling, and the two men reminisce on their days at the Shanghai Conservatory. Sparrow confesses that...
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...Ai-ming agrees to go with him, the two of them can finally be reunited with Ling, and, what’s more, the entrance scores are 100 points lower for Beijing residents. Ai-ming agrees...
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Chapter 5 (II)
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...
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The next day, Ling goes to Yaobang’s funeral procession, but Ai-ming decides to stay home with Sparrow. The two...
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...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...
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Chapter 4 (II)
Meanwhile, Ling is riding the bus home from work. When the bus reaches the area near Tiananmen...
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...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...
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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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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Chapter 3 (II)
...in her teens. Li-ling asks about Ai-ming and her mother, and Yiwen tells her that Ling died in 1996. She says that Ai-ming returned in 1996 for her mother’s funeral and...
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Li-ling asks Yiwen whether Ling ever mentioned that Ai-ming had gone to live with her and her mother in Canada....
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Chapter 2 (II)
...and she needs to bring them to Sparrow’s apartment. Sparrow instructs Ai-ming to stay with Ling and leaves with his colleague. Ling, holding Sparrow’s new composition, The Sun Shines on the...
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...she forgot to close the window. When she goes back to shut it, she sees Ling hovering in the doorway. “Ai-ming, come back,” her mother says.
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...Sparrow sent just weeks earlier, saying he would come to Hong Kong. He thinks of Ling and Ai-ming, all the while running toward the soldiers.
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Chapter 1 (II)
In the weeks following the protests, Ai-ming and Ling search for Sparrow in all of the hospitals of the city, but when they don’t...
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That night, Ling sits over Ai-ming as she sleeps. At Ling’s workplace, the radio station, several of her...
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The next morning, the new director of the radio station summons Ling into his office. He tells her that Sparrow’s body had been found on June 4...
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When Ling looks up to meet the director’s eyes, he looks “genuinely ashamed.” As Ling pedals home,...
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