M Butterfly a Play by David Henry Hwang

M. Butterfly, a play by David Henry Hwang, has captivated audiences for many years. I love a story with many twists and turns, and M. Butterfly describes an affair between a Chinese "woman" and a French diplomat that carries on for 20 years, only to discover that the "woman" was actually a man. A spy for the Communist Party sent to get information on the Vietnam War, but Gallimard was too stubborn to see it until Liling, the Chinese opera singer, is sent to France, where she is found to be a man in court. Through this, we can see the relationship between gender, capitalism, ethnicity/nationality, and sexuality. The way M. Butterfly shows gender can be very clearly seen as the play moves on. When Song Liling and Comrade Chin are discussing how men play women's parts, Liling says, "No, it's because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act." This statement says that a man knows a real woman, one that is submissive to him, and that is what Liling gave Song. Take the time when Gallimard and Song were talking, and Liling says, "It's one of your favorite fantasies, isn't it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man." By this, Liling is pointing out the gender differences between men and women during that time. White women were considered more outgoing than Chinese women. Thus, when Gallimard finds Liling, he thinks he has found a woman of his fantasies, a woman he can have as a mistress but who will not tell his wife, only be submissive to him. Rene Gallimard fantasized about being a true man because they did not consider Chinese men real men or masculine. During the scene when Song and the judge are talking, Song says, "Her eyes say yes, but her mouth says no. The West thinks of itself as masculine, big guns, big industry, while the East is feminine, weak, and delicate." This shows how gender is perceived in different cultures. Another scene that shows how sexuality relates to these characters is when Gallimard first meets Renee, and they are about to have sex. She says, "You have a nice weenie." This demonstrates her sexuality as a heterosexual, but it catches Gallimard off guard because he had never had his penis complimented before. This shows how open she is about her sexuality and how playfully she expresses it. The play M. Butterfly is a tale of love and betrayal. But unlike other love stories, this tale also shows how Chinese people were perceived by Western people in the early '60s and maybe to this day. M. Butterfly shows us through gender, capitalism, ethnicity, and sexuality how three of the main characters all reflect those ideals and how they all relate to each other through those ideals.