Is this a wake, a demonstration or a musical? If you answered ‘musical’, you would be correct, but don’t feel too bad if you thought it was it was a wake or a demonstration – after all, the props certainly look like it! The scene is Singapore in the 1960s, at the Cultural Centre that once stood behind the National Museum of Singapore. The musical was Flower Drum Song.

Flower Drum Song, a musical based on a book, was part of an American fascination with the East in the same vein as The King and I. This musical revolved around the clashing of the traditional Chinese culture and the Americanised Asians in San Francisco. Peter Chan recounts his first-hand experience at the musical in the Singapore 60ss Andy’s Pop Music Influence blog here and here.