Flower Drum Song

The Flower Drum Song was a stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and based off of a novel written by C.Y. Lee, a Chinese American author. This piece opened on Broadway in 1958 and was later produced as a musical film in 1961. After the musical film production, actual performances on stage were rare. In 2002, the musical was revived by David Henry Hwang, but with revisions to the plot.

The original novel focused on a man named Wang Chi-Yang who fled from China to avoid the communists. His sister-in-law, Madam Tang, who takes citizenship classes, constantly urged Wang to adopt Western ways. Because Wang was a traditional Chinese man, he resisted assimilation while his children integrated to the American culture. Wang also had a severe cough which he stubbornly refused to treat, thinking that it gave him authority in the household. His son, Wang Ta fell in love with May Li, who had just come to San Francisco with her father. She would sing flower drum songs on the street in order to support herself. After Ta vowed to marry May Li, she was accused of stealing a clock from the Wang household which led to father Wang to forbid their marriage. Throughout the novel, Wang struggled to understand the conflicts which were tearing his household apart. His opposition to assimilation isolated him from his family. In the end, Wang gave in to his family’s advice to treating his cough and walked into a Chinese-run Western clinic. This symbolized Wang beginning to accept the American culture.

The 1958 musical plot was much different from the original novel. It focused on a young man named Wang Ta, who found love interest with a young woman named Mei-Li after many different events. Mei-Li had just arrived from China illegally and was arranged to be married to another young man named Sammy Fong. Wang Ta on the other hand, had a blind date with an extremely Americanized woman named Linda Low, who was a stripper at a club and Sammy Fong’s actual girlfriend. Throughout the whole musical, many different dramatic and controversial events occur. Eventually, Wang Ta ended up with Mei-Li and Sammy Fong with Linda Low.

In the 1950s, there were only a few Asian American actors and actresses. After a long search, the producers successfully put together a cast which consisted of mostly Asian American actors and actresses. During that period of time, there was a strong demand for Asian Americans because different shows were opening; therefore the producers hired people of different races that would pass as Asian Americans after they put on their costumes and make-up.

Despite the huge success of this musical, many saw the show as stereotypical and even patronizing towards Asians. Others criticized the show as “inauthentic” and “offensive”. It even started a furor when the show was allegedly going to be reproduced in San Francisco considering the sensitivity towards Chinese immigrant due to problems that were occurring at that time. To Chinese Americans, the Flower Drum Song did not represent how they truly acted in real life. The author refuted these negative claims by explaining that he was attempting to rewrite history in the form of a musical. The Flower Drum Song did indeed show the different and struggle between traditional Asian traditions and Western traditions. It also showed the different degrees of assimilation that different Asian immigrants/Asian Americans had (ex. Mei Li and Linda Low). These different degrees of assimilation affected the experiences that each Asian had in the United States. The Flower Drum Song also showed the pressures of the Asian Americans to assimilate to the American culture and suppress their own cultural identity in order to avoid discrimination. This musical was extremely successful due to the amazing performances and production efforts but contains many underlying messages and reflections of Asian life and struggles in America. 

Submitted by: Tanya Luc