The narrator of the poem, who listens to his mother and grandmother sing. Having moved frequently throughout his youth due to his family's exile from Indonesia, he experiences a deep sense of displacement. He lacks direct memories of China and relies on his imagination to envision places like the Summer Palace and Kuen Ming Lake.

The speaker's mother, who comes from a powerful dynastic Chinese family. She sings when her son requests it, using her voice to bring forth distant memories of her homeland. She persists through her tears, choosing to maintain the song despite its emotional weight.

The speaker's grandmother, who joins her daughter in singing about their shared past. She represents an older generation displaced from China. Like her daughter, she cries as she sings but refuses to stop, maintaining a connection to her history.

The speaker's late father, who worked as a physician and teacher before enduring political persecution and imprisonment. He exists in the poem entirely through the speaker's memory, envisioned playing his accordion and swaying steadily like a boat.