A Little More on PG Wodehouse and China

After watching the BBC drama the other night Wodehouse in Exile (about PG Wodehouse’s problems in occupied France and his contentious broadcasts for the Germans – Orwell, rightly dubbed him more idiot than traitor) I thought perhaps another post on Wodehouse and China was in order. I posted before about Wodehouse’s China links (and his satirical novel Clarence which see a Chinese army invade Wales) – his dad was a judge in Hong Kong before he was born and Wodehouse himself first worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) and was slated for a Far East posting had his literary career not taken of. This time it might be worth mentioning that Wodehouse did feel drawn occasionally to romantic notions of China – he grew up in a house stuffed with Chinese curios and momentoes of his parents years in Hong Kong – and The Rose of China was one such outpouring.

Around 1919 Wodehouse was in America (his wife was of that extraction) supposedly relaxing but he was persuaded to start working with Guy Bolton on a musical based on Samuel Shipman’s play East is West. This became The Rose of China and they roped in the conductor of the Ritz Hotel’s orchestra Armand Vecsey to provide the score. Wodehouse himself provided the lyrics for at least two songs in the show – Broken Blossoms and Bunny Dear. The show premiered on Broadway in 1920 with Bolton being credited with the book, Vecsey with the music and Wodehouse with the lyrics. It was, unfortunately, a failure and lasted only 47 performances before the three act musical set  in “The garden of Tsao Ling, Tommy Tilford’s bungalow and the Terrace outside the bungalow” was darkened forever. Still, a certain couple of characters called Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves rather took of and Wodehouse could forget his China failure.