Talk:Flower Drum Song

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WikiProject Musical Theatre tasks: Help out with one of the WikiProject Musical Theatre tasks below. You may add your name to the Participants list to the right. edit this Open Tasks template Collaborate and work on the Collaboration of the Month Articles needing a content fork Mainly, these are articles on films and either their source or subsequent musicals. There are a couple where the musical needs to be "forked" from the source material. Feel free to add or remove as necessary. Important: If you split an article, please make sure that you move all the relevant links from the first article to the new one. To find which links to move, click on "What links here" at the old article and look through the list to see which links should be pointed to the film related link (for example, articles on actors in the film). Then, click on those links and update them to point to the film article. Thanks! Don't Play Us Cheap Roberta How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying I Married an Angel Lady in the Dark The Band Wagon - musical adaptation will to be forked after it opens in April.

Contents 1 Other changes needed 2 Notes on Article 3 Important Information Missing 4 Fair use rationale for Image:TimePatSuzukiDec22-1958.jpg

[edit] Other changes needed

A couple of observations — thought I'd share them because it feels too big for one person (at least, too big for this one):

• (1) The information doesn't seem all that well organized. I kept thinking the article was over, then I'd read another major section, then another ... It also jumps around back and forth among versions. Is it time, perhaps, to split the article into separate ones about the book, the stage musicals (both in one), and the film? That approach doesn't seem to fit this topic, but I'm trying to think how to make the reading flow better.
• (2) There is a considerable amount of seeming original research here. Also, the information about the cast members' other work doesn't seem well integrated; at present it seems users would be served better by simply following the wikilinks to read all about each cast member. The exception would be information such as the claim that Jack Soo was encouraged to change his name specifically for this show (if we can source that).
• (3) The synopsis suffers a bit from the in-universe problem, such as the item that says "____, who enjoys being a girl." That doesn't make sense to someone who doesn't know the song, and to such a person, the link could seem odd as well. Other articles make a more straightforward mention, along the lines of "___ sings a soliloquy about femininity ('I Enjoy Being a Girl')." Lawikitejana 01:07, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I ran across source information about Jack Soo's name change. It doesn't say here that he changed it specifically for Flower Drum Song however. Klein, Christina (2003). "6", Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1961. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 235. “Others [programs for Flower Drum Song] acknowledged the internment of Japanese American actors during the 1940s and explained how some actors had changed their names—from the Japanese Goro Suzuki to the Chinese-sounding Jack Soo, for instance—as a way of avoiding the anti-Japanese racism.”  - Anon

[edit] Notes on Article

I agree with the observations (above) by Lawikitejana. Taking this step by step, here is what I think might--hopefully--make this article more understandable and clear: (NOTE: I am not telling anyone what to do, this is just my way of figuring out things)

1. remove "Novel" section and place in the author's article; DONEJeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
2. place all information about the original stage play and subsequent productions in one section; (be sure to keep relevant historical background) DONE (needs more background from the Rodgers and Hammerstein perspective)JeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
3. place all information about the film, including DVD, etc in one section; DONE JeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)possibly make a new article with just the film info.;
4. carefully review and possibly delete/shorten the cast list. Most imporantly, remove extraneous material that is more appropriate for the actors' article; DONE (still needs a fresh look)JeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
5. carefully review the song lists to assure they do not mix the stage/film; DONE (will look again)JeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
6. read carefully for POV/Original Research statements, and change or delete where appropriate. NOT DONE (except for a few statememnts)

I am sure there's more, but that is my anaylsis so far (really these are working notes to me, as much as thinking out loud). I may attempt to start this work, but do not have the time right now.JeanColumbia 20:35, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

1. I agree, with just a brief mention and relevant dates in the WP:LEAD. 2. Yes, move to a Background section, with just a brief mention and relevant dates in the WP:LEAD. 3. I generally think that the film articles should be split off if there is sufficient information about them to justify an article. 4. Agreed. The actors listed who had their own articles only need to be linked. But in some cases, it doesn't even say what characters they played. We need a character list or at least a Broadway cast list that names the significant singing/speaking roles and just lists out the minor roles next to an asterisk. 5. Yup. 6. Let me know if you need help with this. Thanks for working on the R&H musicals. They were in pretty sorry shape, considering how important they are! You're doing a wonderful job on upgrading the musicals articles on WP! -- Ssilvers 22:19, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

I had a spare hour so I started working on this article. I tried to preserve evrything that seemed useful, and informative, but really moved things around quite a bit. If I left out an important piece of data, it may be because there are large movements of material, and not deliberate, however I think nothing significant (to me) has been lost. The synopsis --not sure if that's also for the original Broadway, 2002 revival or just the movie. It's a startJeanColumbia 11:25, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

If you split off the film article, I'll write a synopsis for the Broadway version(s). Also, please look at your pronouns in the first few paragraphs. It is not always clear to me from the prose which version or person you are referring to. -- Ssilvers 15:05, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

1) split film -- I left the 1961 synopsis for temporary reference, you can use it or delete it, whatever suits 2) looking at pronouns-seem ok to me. JeanColumbia 17:35, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I moved film links over to the film article (or added links for actors in both musical and film). Please check "What links here" to see if I missed any. Probably you need to add film links to some other people involved in both. -- Ssilvers 19:41, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I fixed the synopsis. -- Ssilvers 02:41, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Important Information Missing

The article should mention the year that the novel Flower Drum Song was published, which was 1957.

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:TimePatSuzukiDec22-1958.jpg

Image:TimePatSuzukiDec22-1958.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:50, 26 November 2007 (UTC)