Writing, History, and Music in Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Conversation with Madeleine Thien

• Published in: Canadian literature no. 238; pp. 13 - 183
• Main Author: Lee, Hsiu-chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vancouver The University of British Columbia - Canadian Literature 22.06.2019; Pacific Affairs. The University of British Columbia
• Subjects: Canadian literature; Canadian writers; Canadians; Chinese history; Chinese languages; Conversation; Creative writing; Creativity; Cultural Revolution; Epic literature; Fiction; Genocide; Human rights; Ideology; Interviews; Land reform; Literary characters; Literature; Logic; Mediation; Music; Musicians & conductors; Novels; Publishing; Publishing industry; Readers; Revolutions; Thien, Madeleine; Transliteration; Writers; Writing; Canada; Cambodia; Hong Kong; China; Germany; Quebec Canada
• ISSN: 0008-4360

An epic novel that spans China's tumultuous modern history from the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Land Reform, and the Cultural Revolution, to the 1989 Tiananmen Movement and its aftermath, Do Not Say We Have Nothing explores modern Chinese histories via the form of creative writing. Since the novel was inspired by Bach's Goldberg Variations and at its core is the family saga of three classical musicians whose lives crossed at the Shanghai Conservatory, the interview probes particularly the interactions between music, writing, and the representation of histories. The difficult knots at the centre of these books are: how does one choose, how does one live, how does one create and re-create, and how does one not become atomized because honestly, it makes perfect sense that, after what they lived through, they would lose faith in other human beings. hl: [...]about the length of the novel. Since your language is poetic and refined, readers tend to read slowly.