Flower Drum Song by C.Y. Lee

Originally posted Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I loved the movie "Flower Drum Song", and was thrilled to learn it was based on a book. I had to have that book, written by C. Lee! It has now been reprinted so success was mine; I made sure it was the actual book by C.Y. Lee & not something based on the movie. The foreword proved very interesting and helpful in how the book came to be.

I have found the book a delight to read. I loved the movie but was determined that would not affect my reading. Though I can easily see how the book lent itself to become a movie, this is a book that is somewhat different from that movie. It is indeed a story about the problems of the Chinese youth trying to reconcile life in the China they left, with the America they have come to presumably in the mid-20th century. Though the majority of the parents remain traditionally Chinese, the young people want to break away from such a strict and uncompromising life. This is the backbone of the story of the Wang family.

Though the production was done as a musical this felt like a logical step, as the book theme circles around music. The original characters in the book remain, with some changes in the transition to theatre production. Overall, the main concept of the book remains and I would recommend it to anyone.