Cross-dressing, East and West, Heteronormativity. Oh My!: Questioning “M. Butterfly”

Taking time to reflect and respond to the details and the plot progression of this play by asking thought-provoking questions.

The book version of “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang (Image Source)

“M. Butterfly” is play that revolves around the relationship between the two leads, Rene Gallimard (French diplomat) and Song Liling (Chinese opera singer). It starts off like an innocent with a game of Western cat and Eastern mouse (“hard to get” plot scenario) between these two. However, all is never what it seems (which does seem to be a running theme). The interesting plot twists and developments stimulated some interesting questions to discuss and think about.

1. When it comes to desire and passion for things (or in this case, people) in life, why is it that people delude themselves to the point where they don’t notice the obvious details? Why do we continue to only swim in fantasy when we know that being real is what makes sincere progress?
2. Do we, as humans, have a natural instinct to immediately change our perspective of someone as they learn newer pieces of information about them? Is that fair to immediately change your entire perception of someone because of one new fact that you learned about them?
3. How has the stereotypes of Western and Eastern women affect the perspective of the representative individuals and of the outsiders looking in? Do some of these stereotypes still live on to this day? Why?

Character of Song, played by Nathaniel Braga in “M.Butterfly” at Court Theatre in Chicago. (Image Source)