About the work
Flower Drum Song is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) with a book by Hammerstein and Joseph Fields, premiered on Broadway in 1958. It was one of the first major Broadway musicals with a predominantly Asian-American cast.
Plot
In San Francisco's Chinatown, tradition and American modernity collide. The young Mei Li arrives as an illegal immigrant from China to marry a man promised to her, the nightclub owner Sammy Fong—who, however, loves the Americanised dancer Linda Low. In parallel, the tradition-minded Wang family patriarch struggles with his Westernised son Wang Ta. In a web of arranged marriages, love, and generational conflict, the couples find their way happily together in the end.
Cultural significance
Flower Drum Song was remarkable for its time in depicting Asian-American life, though it was later critically discussed for some stereotypes. The number I Enjoy Being a Girl became a standard. David Henry Hwang revised the book in 2002 for a revival that retold the story from a contemporary perspective. The work remains an important, much-debated chapter of the Rodgers and Hammerstein era.