Madeleine Thien’s voice echoes through the packed sanctuary of Centretown United Church, as she reads excerpts from her book Do Not Say We Have Nothing at an event hosted Oct. 30 by the Ottawa International Writers Festival (OIWF) to promote her work.
Thien’s novel is the winner of this year’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and has also been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The novel is an intergenerational saga about three musicians whose lives are profoundly impacted by Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China.
Facilitated by CBC Television anchor Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, the event’s conversation revolved around Thien’s writing processes for the novel.
Thien said she doesn’t really map out written plans for her stories.
“You only know it as it’s unspooling,” she said.
She also spoke about the importance of music to her writing process for Do Not Say We Have Nothing.
“I wanted for music to be a language the characters use to express a private self,” Thien said.
She talked about her research on the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square events.
Thien discussed how the Chinese government censors the events of the Tiananmen Square protests, saying they keep a “lid on 60 years of political revolution and political catastrophe.”
She also spoke about how important it is to talk about difficult parts of one’s history, and how she received a “thankful” response from members of the Chinese community for writing the novel.
Victoria Song, an attendee, said Thien’s book was the first one she read that confronted the Cultural Revolution in an honest way.
“[The book has] actually inspired me to do more research about the Cultural Revolution and learn about that time because my parents grew up in that era,” Song said. “Because they never talk about it, it’s up to me to figure out and find out more info about Chinese history on my own.”
Jane Zhang, a McGill University PhD psychology student, said she hadn’t read Thien’s latest book yet, but had enjoyed her previous works, which is what drew her to the event.
“I’m always interested in coming out to support [Asian-Canadian] authors, especially in terms of this kind of subject material,” Zhang said.
After the reading and conversation, the line for Thien’s book-signing stretched all the way from the stage to the sanctuary entrance. Sean Wilson, artistic director for the OIWF, said he was thrilled that so many people showed up to support Thien’s work.
“We’ve had her here for every one of her books, and so it’s amazing to see that everyone else finally gets what we’ve been seeing this entire time, which is that she’s this insanely talented, wonderful person with a remarkable gift and a totally unique vision of the world.” Wilson said.
In an interview with The Charlatan, Thien spoke about the plans for her next book.
“It’s much more intimate,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to be such a big epic novel. It’s a bit closer to home. I’m still trying to figure out if it’s still possible to write it.”
She also spoke more on why students should read stories and perspectives far different from their own.
“The world is big,” Thien said. “There’s so many ways of living, so many ways of thinking. And the more that we can build into our consciousness, the richer our life is going to be. I feel like the farther we look away from us, the deeper our understanding will be of ourselves.”
