Point of View

Do Not Say We Have Nothing alternates between Marie’s first person perspective and Ai-ming’s third person narrative. Marie’s narration focuses on her relationship with her family and Ai-ming after her father’s death as well as her search for Ai-ming after her disappearance, while Ai-ming’s narration tells the story of her family through the dawn of the communist regime in China to her escape into Canada after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Both perspectives are mostly in the past tense, although occasionally Marie’s first person narration shifts into the present tense as she reflects from the present on the story she is telling or discusses her ongoing search for Ai-ming. These shifts to the present become more prevalent as the novel goes on, ultimately leading to the Coda where Marie’s portion of the narration is almost entirely in the present...