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
Auntie Song sits contentedly in her vegetable garden, harvesting Chinese broccoli for a celebratory dinner: after two weeks in the hospital, Tao is coming home. Soon it will be time to plant fall crops, although she plans to wait, if necessary, until Tao can help her. At 68 years old, Song still spends hours working in the garden each day, finding it more effective in combating her arthritis and other age-related illnesses than Kai Ying’s herbal concoctions.
Like the kapok tree, Song’s garden obeys the rhythms of nature, the increase of spring and the dying back of fall. Nothing stays the same, it suggests; attempts to ignore this truth will cause unhappiness. The contrast between the elderly Song and the young Tao contributes to this sense of time’s movement. But passing down traditions from adult to child ensures that, even as life changes, the lessons of the past endure.
Themes
The villa is very different from the busy streets and cramped apartments of the Old Guangzhou district where Song spent most of her life. After Song’s husband died, Liang—her best friend from elementary school—invited her to move there. Song believes that she and Liang must have been sisters in a previous life, because otherwise she struggles to understand how they could have maintained their friendship despite the differences in their lives. Unlike Liang’s marriage, Song’s was miserable. Her husband, Old Hing, was 40 and had been married twice before. She was only 16, but her parents agreed to the marriage for an insultingly small dowry payment.
Song’s past shows how tribulation can turn into strength and wisdom. Her gratitude for the garden and the simple things she enjoys in life, like friendship and companionship, seems to be sharpened by the contrast between the present and harder times in her life. Her marriage also points to some of the traditions that the Communist Party overturned, including plural marriage and bride-selling. But it’s yet to be seen whether doing away with these traditional practices automatically makes life better.
Themes
Song moved to the villa before the Communist takeover, and she worried about fitting into this wealthy, privileged neighborhood. But she longed for the opportunities it presented, like the chance to have a garden and live a peaceful, quiet life. Now, she considers the Lees family, and she has looked after them protectively since Liang’s death. Considering the blessings of her life, she feels certain that Tao will recover and Sheng will return, things she prays for to the goddess Kuan Yin every day.
The Chinese Communist Revolution claimed to want to overthrow the abuses of capitalism and the class system, yet it fell into its own missteps and abuses. Song’s experience suggests that the best way to overcome inequality is not by government policy but through relationships. After all, Liang and Wei were happy to help Song even before the revolution sought to erase the difference in their class statuses.
Themes
