m butterfly

 The play “M Butterfly”, by David Henry Hwang, is about the love relationship between a French diplomat, Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, a male Peking opera singer. Throughout the story, themes of Western vs. Eastern culture, race/ethnicity, and gender are illustrated.

Song compares Western men to Chinese men by stating that “one of the exciting things about loving a Western man… [is that he is not] threatened by a woman’s education” (43). This comparison of different cultures gives Gallimard the impression that Chinese women tend to be more attracted to Western men due to the fact that men like him are more accepting and open minded to women. When song stated that Western men are not threatened by a woman’s education, she implied that Chinese men are. Back then, Chinese people were very traditional and believed that men should always be the strongest and most powerful figure in a relationship. Unlike the Easter cultures, Westerners were more understanding of equality between the genders.

When Song wondered why the roles of women in Peking operas were always played by men, he came the conclusion that this was “because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act” (63).  The mindset that Song had was sexism against women. He believes that only a man would know how a woman should behave because women should always behave how men want them to. By playing a woman in his opera performances, Song showed his audiences how women should act in society. Decades ago, when the time frame for this play was set, it was highly likely that women were inferior to men. The power that the men had gave them the idea that they were allowed to have control over women and expected women to behave accordingly. Those men probably already created an image of the ideal woman in their minds which they expect all women should conform to.