C.Y. Lee, Chinese-born author of bestselling novel ‘The Flower Drum Song’, dies at age 102
- Book shot up the bestseller list and was adapted for stage by the Broadway team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
- A 1961 movie adaptation received five Oscar nominations
C.Y. Lee, a Chinese-born author whose bestselling 1957 novel The Flower Drum Song explored conflict among first and second-generation immigrants in San Francisco’s Chinatown, provided the source material for two Broadway productions 43 years apart and sparked a cultural debate about Asian stereotypes, died November 8 at his daughter’s home in Los Angeles. He was 102.
The cause was complications from kidney failure, said his daughter, Angela Lee. The family did not publicly announce the death.
Over a career spanning seven decades, Lee wrote nearly a dozen volumes of historical fiction, but his best-known work was his debut novel, The Flower Drum Song, which brought instant literary stardom upon its release.
He was called an overnight sensation, but in fact he had spent years toiling in obscurity after having arrived in the United States from China on a student visa during the second world war.
He wrote The Flower Drum Song while renting a room above a Filipino nightclub in San Francisco’s Chinatown and working as an editor and columnist for one of the city’s Chinese-language newspapers.
The book concerned Wang Chi-yang, a first-generation Chinese immigrant struggling to accept the cultural and generational gap he had with his American-raised son, Wang Ta, particularly in matters of love and marriage.
Lee’s agent was turned down by nearly every major publisher in New York and was about to give up after a year, when Farrar, Straus and Cudahy made a bid.