Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Hundred Flowers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Redemption
Journeys and Growth
Suffering, Strength, and Resilience
Home and Family
The Promises and Failures of Communism
Summary
Analysis
It’s been three anxious, exhausting days since Wei left. Kai Ying knows even Auntie Song is worried; she stops by several times a day for news. Now, as she tries to pick a book for Tao, he asks her to tell him a story about her life instead. She isn’t sure what to say—storytelling has always been Sheng’s and Wei’s expertise, not hers. But she tries anyway. She tells Tao that the name of the city where she grew up, Zhaoqing, means City of Happiness. Now, her city of happiness is Guangzhou, because that is where she lives with Tao, his father, and his grandfather. Tao asks if his mean words made Wei leave, but Kai Ying assures him that his grandfather loves him too much to stay hurt, no matter how many mean words Tao used.
Tao wants Kai Ying to take Wei’s place, to tell him a story from memory rather than read it to him. He wants her to maintain the illusion that nothing has changed, something she has been trying—and failing—to do since Sheng’s arrest. And, because the task is impossible, she fails at it here. But she shows her strength in other ways: unlike Wei, Sheng, and Tao, she left her home in Zhaoquing and found a new family in Guangzhou.
Themes
As she tucks him into bed, Kai Ying tells Tao a story, one her father told her when she was about his age. Once, she tells him, a magical white pearl fell from heaven and turned into a beautiful lake. But the pearl was so beautiful that the white jade dragon and the golden phoenix followed it to earth, turning themselves into the mountains that surround the lake. Then, people built the city of Zhaoqing around the lake and mountains. The end. Immediately, she realizes she told the story badly; it was too short and plain. When Tao tells it back to her, embellishing it in all the right places, she realizes he inherited Wei’s and Sheng’s storytelling gifts. As he finishes, Kai Ying promises to take the family to see Zhaoqing’s mountains when Wei and Sheng have returned. They’ll even take Suyin, Song, and the baby. Tao smiles in delight.
Kai Ying tells a magical story about love and devotion—a story that resonates with the Lee family, who struggle to maintain their connections even as circumstances threaten to tear them apart. But she tells it in her own, realistic, simple style, not as the grand myth or legend it would become in Wei’s hands. Tao wanted Kai Ying to take on his father’s or grandfather’s role, but when he retells her story, he shows off the storytelling talent he shares with Sheng and Wei. Just a few pages earlier, he longed for their return because he didn’t feel ready to take care of himself. But as he learns to face the world, it becomes clear that he’s stronger, more resilient, and readier than he realizes. And when Kai Ying imagines the family trip to Zhaoqing, she includes everyone who has become important to her and Tao, not just their blood relatives but their adopted family members Song, Suyin, and Meizhen. Their futures have become inextricably intwined.
Themes
