General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

A Boy Named Flora A

A Boy Named Flora A (花甲男孩转大人) is a 2017 Taiwanese television drama series about the extended Zheng family of the fictional Fanxing Township (繁星乡), who gather at their ancestral three-section compound as the grandmother lies dying with one breath left. It was adapted from writer Yang Fu-min's (杨富闵) 2010 short-story collection Hua-jia Boy (花甲男孩), directed by Chu Yu-ning (瞿友宁) and Li Ching-jung (李青蓉), and produced by Wang Hsiao-ti (王小棣) as part of the 植剧场 (Q Series) anthology. Singer-actor Crowd Lu (卢广仲) starred as the eldest grandson Zheng Hua-jia in his first television role.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	花甲男孩转大人; English title A Boy Named Flora A³
Basis	Adaptation of Yang Fu-min's 2010 short-story collection 花甲男孩; Yang joined the screenwriting group¹
Broadcast	2017 on Taiwan Television (TTV), premiering May 26, as part of the 植剧场 (Q Series) anthology¹^•⁴
Lead cast	Crowd Lu (卢广仲) as Zheng Hua-jia, with Tsai Chen-nan (蔡振南), Wang Tsai-hua (王彩桦), Hsieh Ying-hsuan (谢盈萱), Yen Cheng-lan (严正岚), Lung Shao-hua (龙劭华), Kang Kang (康康), and Ko Shu-yuan (柯叔元)²^•⁵
Signature scene	A 3-minute-33-second single-take argument between Hua-jia and his father, widely shared online⁶
Reception	Finale rating of 4.16, first in its timeslot nationwide; the series reached a peak rating of 4.58 and drew about 1,472,000 viewers⁷^•⁸
Film sequel	花甲大人转男孩 (Back to the Good Times), released February 9, 2018, with box office of NT$102,160,797⁹

Spoilers

Premise

The story begins when Zheng Hua-jia, the 28-year-old eldest grandson of the Zheng family, receives a call that his grandmother is critically ill and rushes south with his friend A-wei (阿玮). Relatives return to the compound and busy themselves under the funeral company's direction, but after the respirator is removed the grandmother is left with one last breath. The five siblings argue over the estate like children who never finished growing up, while neighbors arrive in groups to say farewell, turning the courtyard into a rural way station. To save her, Hua-jia accepts the destiny assigned to him as a spirit medium (乩童), and the family's unresolved threads, including the long-lost granddaughter Hua-hui and Hua-jia's long-absent mother, come back to the surface.¹⁰

The series frames this deathbed vigil as a story about growing up. Through Hua-jia, it examines family affection, gender equality, and traditional belief, and the title's phrase "turning into an adult" (转大人) describes the whole household as much as its protagonist.¹¹^•²

From novel to screen

Yang Fu-min's collection 花甲男孩 was published in 2010 and consists of nine short stories. For the adaptation, the director supplied a family framework that turned characters from the separate stories into members of one Zheng household in Fanxing Township, and Yang himself joined the screenwriting group alongside writers including Zhan Jie (詹杰) and Yang Pi-ying (杨璧莹). Yang described the result less as a faithful transcription than as "the filming of Yang Fu-min's creative content," with the novel and the drama meant to be read as companion texts.¹^•⁸^•¹²

The adaptation also moved characters' circumstances: in the drama, Zheng Guang-sheng, having lost a son, quits teaching and drives a school bus, a detail the screenwriters developed beyond the novel. Yang said the director saw in his Hua-jia a melancholy "old soul" and added comedic warmth that made the character rounder.¹²^•¹³

Cast and production

Crowd Lu, a well-known singer, took his first television drama role as Zheng Hua-jia, a character described as a "loser" who spent three years retaking university entrance exams and two extra years in school. Tsai Chen-nan played his father, and the two shared extensive scenes, including the single-take argument that ran 3 minutes and 33 seconds and circulated widely online; CNA noted that the colloquial Taiwanese dialogue in that scene evoked audiences' memories of arguments with their own parents.¹¹^•⁵^•⁶

The production was closely tied to Taichung. Chu Yu-ning, a Taichung native, said filming there felt like coming home, and the Taichung City Government and its film fund supported the shoot. Locations included the Ruijing Community in Dadu, whose old brick houses and winding fire lane appear in the one-take scene, drawing visitors after broadcast.²^•¹⁴

Reception

The series premiered in May 2017 and quickly became a talking point on the PTT forum, with each episode generating discussion. Its finale recorded a rating of 4.16, first in its timeslot nationwide, and the Taichung film fund later cited a series-high rating of 4.58. The Fountain journal reported about 1,472,000 viewers, making it one of the highest-rated Taiwanese dramas of its period. After the finale, the PTT live-viewing thread reached 422 pages and more than 9,200 comments, and Crowd Lu said fans told him the eulogy scene helped them make peace with relatives they had not been able to bid farewell to.⁵^•⁷^•⁸

The drama also raised the profiles of its cast. Yen Cheng-lan drew wide attention through the series, and Liu Kuan-ting (刘冠廷), who played Zheng Hua-ming, went on to a prominent film career.¹⁵

Film sequel

Riding the drama's ratings, Chu Yu-ning returned to feature directing after five years with 花甲大人转男孩 (Back to the Good Times), made with the original cast and released on February 9, 2018 for the Lunar New Year season. The film jumps forward a year: the grandmother's death anniversary rites are underway, Hua-jia has finished military service and reunited with his girlfriend A-wei, and a morning discovery that the two woke up naked in bed together drags both families into an absurd confrontation. The film added a time-travel element and focused almost entirely on Hua-jia as a single protagonist.¹⁶^•¹⁷^•¹⁸

The film passed NT$37 million in its first week, crossed NT$100 million on March 12, 2018, and finished with a total box office of NT$102,160,797, figures the Taiwan Film Institute's yearbook described as a commercial success for the team.¹⁹^•²⁰^•⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Television films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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