As a young Chinese American baby-boomer, I remember going out of my way to avoid movies featuring Asian characters. In the 1960s, such portrayals might generally be characterized as "inhuman:" either inhumanly bad (e.g. Fu Manchu), or inhumanly good (e.g. Charlie Chan). One exception to my childhood rule was the 1961 Universal release Flower Drum Song, which I first encountered on some television late-night movie. I was pleasantly surprised to witness a romance between an Asian man and an Asian woman, a younger generation of Chinese Americans portrayed as completely American, and an (almost) all-Asian cast, singing and dancing to music by the greatest team in American musical theatre history: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
   The film was adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical, which was in turn based on C.Y. Lee's 1957 book, the first Chinese American novel to become a best seller. On Broadway, the show ran for 600 performances; Hammerstein referred to it at his "lucky hit." Hammerstein's co-librettist, Joseph Fields, subsequently penned the movie's screenplay. The film proved moderately successful, garnering five Oscar nominations. Both the movie and Broadway show retained many of C.Y. Lee's characters and romances, while lightening the novel's tone and adding a nightclub setting based on the historical "Chop Suey Circuit," "Cotton Club"-like establishments featuring all-Asian revues.
   In the movie, Mei Li and her father Dr. Li smuggle themselves illegally from Hong Kong to San Francisco to fulfill an arranged marriage to a man she has never met. Wandering penniless through the Chinatown streets, Dr. Li proposes that she perform a "Flower Drum Song" in the park to raise some cash ("A Hundred Million Miracles"). Their show attracts a policeman, who takes them to her intended husband: Sammy Fong, owner of the Celestial Garden nightclub. The totally Americanized Sammy has been dating his star performer, Linda Low, and has no wish to go through with an arranged marriage. Instead, he cooks up a scheme to assign his contract to Old Master Wang and his sister-in-law Madame Liang, who are seeking a wife for Wang's elder son, Ta. A stern traditionalist, Wang finds himself confused and angered by the Americanized ways of Ta and his younger son, San ("The Other generation"). Impressed by the shy and obedient Mei Li, Wang agrees to the match.          
   Unaware of these arrangements, Ta is pursuing Linda Low, who enjoys dating and other trappings of 1950s femininity ("I Enjoy Being A Girl"). She eagerly accepts a proposal of marriage from this handsome and wealthy suitor, concealing her occupation from him, and begins making plans to leave show business. Ta returns home to find Mei Li, who falls in love with her new intended husband ("I am Going to Like It Here"). At a party to celebrate Madame Liang's graduation from American citizenship class ("Chop Suey"), Linda arrives hoping to secure Wang's blessing for her marriage to Ta. These plans come as news to the old man, who berates his son for attempting to choose his own wife. Sammy visits Wang during the Chinese New Year celebrations ("Grant Avenue") and promises to break up Ta's romance if they'll all attend his club. Watching a Celestial Gardens floor show, the Wangs discover Linda's true occupation as a showgirl ("Gliding Through My Memoree/Fan Tan Fanny"), which reinforces Wang's objections and leaves Ta humiliated. Ta seeks solace with seamstress Helen Chao, who secretly also loves him, and spends the night passed out drunk on her bed. Helen realizes through a dream ballet that Ta will never return her love ("Love Look Away").
   Sammy makes up with Linda and finally proposes marriage to her ("Sunday"). Ta goes home prepared to submit to his father's judgment, realizing that he actually does love Mei Li ("You Are Beautiful"). In the interim, however, she has discovered that Ta spent the night at Helen's. Assuming the worst of her intended, Mei Li refuses to go through with the match. She chooses instead to fulfill the terms of her original contract by marrying Sammy, who tries desperately to dissuade her ("Don't Marry Me"). When Ta visits her the night before her wedding, Mei Li concludes that she still loves him, and prays to the gods for a solution to their dilemma. At the ceremony, Mei Li reveals that she entered the country illegally, thus rendering her marriage contract null and void. Sammy's mother will not approve of her son's marriage to a "wetback," freeing him to marry Linda, and Ta to wed Mei Li ("A Hundred Million Miracles" Reprise).
   Among the movie's dubbed singing voices are B.J. Baker for Linda Low, and Marilyn Horne performing Helen Chao. The movie version omitted one song from the musical, "Like a God," which had originally been sung by Ta; by some reports, executives feared that a number in which a Chinese American man compared himself to a god might offend audiences in the American South. This re-release also includes a 1959 Decca recording of "Love Look Away" performed by the late Rosemary Clooney. With the passage of time, Flower Drum Song came to be regarded as a minor work in the Rodgers & Hammerstein canon, overshadowed by such classics as The Sound of Music, The King and I, and Oklahoma! By the time I attended college in the late 1970s, Asians were also criticizing the musical as too cute, too condescending, and too stereotypical in its portrayals. Yet many of us have continued to remain enchanted by Rodgers & Hammerstein's score, whose beauty and vitality inspired me to create a new book for the show's Broadway revival in 2002.
   The film remains a landmark as the first release by a major Hollywood studio starring and about Asian Americans, a feat not to be repeated until 1993's The Joy Luck Club. Rodgers & Hammerstein were attempting to create something revolutionary for their time: a mainstream musical portraying Asian Americans as a vital part of this country's great social experiment. While today's audiences can easily dismiss various aspects of the show as culturally inauthentic, I believe the music proves that Flower Drum Song was authentically felt.