Do Not Say We Have Nothing Themes

Madeline Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing charts the stories of two families before, during, and after China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Jiang Kai and Sparrow are two friends who play music together in Shanghai’s conservatory, which, during the Cultural Revolution, is the target of allegedly anti-rightest attacks by the Red Guard, a violent group of young revolutionaries. The Red Guard’s interpretation of Maoist communism inspires them to target everyone who seems to…

In Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeline Thien tells the story of two families who are persecuted by political violence during China’s Cultural Revolution. In the name of equal division of resources, during the years of land reform, aristocratic families were accused of being “rightist” and tortured, killed, or sent to work in concentration camps with brutal conditions. What begins as communist China’s effort to destroy social hierarchy and create an equal society…

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien is a portrait of China before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. As China transitions to a fully communist government, the country becomes ridden with political violence, which directly or indirectly causes many of the characters to become separated from their families or communities. Through demonstrating the various ways in which China’s government isolates families from one another and divides communities, Thien highlights…

Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing tells the stories of two families who are subject to political oppression during China’s Cultural Revolution. The story is narrated by Li-ling, a first-generation Chinese Canadian woman whose father, Jiang Kai, survived the Cultural Revolution and escaped to China, only commit suicide when Li-ling was 10 years old. Kai left behind scores of documents for his family after his death, including The Book of Records…