mbutterfly

4 Quotes

“I’m a man who loved a woman created by a man” - Rene Galliarmard

“Miss Chin? Why, in the Peking Opera, are women’s roles played by men? … Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act”

“Their mouth says no but their eyes say yes”

“It’s true what they say about Oriental girls. They want to be treated bad!“

3 references to music

“A driving rhythm of Chinese percussion fills the stage”

Costume Changes

Song Liling

Scene	Transition	Significance
Act 1 Scene 1	”Upstage Song, who appears as a beautiful woman in traditional Chinese garb, dances a traditional piece from the Peking Opera, surrounded by the percussive clatter of Chinese music.”
Act 1 Scene 5	”She appears there again, now dressed as Madame Butterfly, moving to the “Love Duet.”
Act 1 Scene 5	”Song, still dressed as Butterfly, changes into a wedding kimono, moving to the music.”
Act 1 Scene 8	”Song starts to remove her costume. Underneath, she wears simple baggy clothes.”
Act 1 Scene 9	”At that moment, Song, her back still towards us, drops her robe.”
Act 1 Scene 10	”Without his noticing, Song enters, dressed elegantly in a black gown from the twenties. She stands in the doorway looking like Anna May Wong”	Appeal to the Western World
Act 1 Scene 13	”Song enters, in a sheer dressing gown." "Song, propped up on one elbow, tosses her hair back and smiles.”
Act 2 Scene 2	”We are in a simple but well-decorated parlor. Gallimard moves to sit on a sofa, while Song, dressed in a chong sam, enters and curls up at his feet.”
Act 2 Scene 4	”You’re [Song] wearing a dress. And every time I come here, you’re wearing a dress.”
Act 2 Scene 6	”Song, dressed as Butterfly, appears in the upstage special.”
Act 2 Scene 9	”Song, wearing a Mao suit, is dragged in from the wings as part of the upstage dance.”
Act 2 Scene 11	”Song enters, dressed as Butterfly in wedding dress." "Song goes to a mirror in front of which is a wash basin of water. She starts to remove her makeup as stagelights go to half and houselights come up.”
Act 3 Scene 1	”As he promised, Song has completed the bulk of his transformation, onstage by the time the houselights go down and the stagelights come up full. He removes his wig and kimono, leaving them on the floor. Underneath, he wears a well-cut suit.”
Act 3 Scene 2	”Song remains a man, in the witness box, delivering a testimony we do not hear." "He starts to remove his clothes." "Song drops his briefs. He is naked." "He picks up Butterfly’s robes, starts to dance around. No music." "Hey! These are Armani slacks and—! (He puts on his briefs and slacks)“
Act 3 Scene 3	”Then a tight special up on Song, who stands as a man, staring at the dead Gallimard. He smokes a cigarette; the smoke filters up through the lights.”

Audiovisual effects

• Blend between Western opera and Orient opera

Context

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Boursicot
• Based off French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Chinese Opera singer who he fell in love with
  • Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese spy, and a man
  • Their affair lasted for over 20 years, and Shi Pei Pu faked their pregnancy
  • Allegedly, Boursicot had no idea; however, he did have numerous homosexual affairs in his youth, and became obsessed with the idea of heterosexual love
  • After Boursicot was told that Pu was a man, he refused to believe it until he saw Pu’s naked body
  • He then became depressed and tried to kill himself in prison
• Set in 1960s during the first phase of Cultural Revolution
  • Chairman Mao was in power
  • Evident through the CCP’s effect on Song, and their “reeducation” of him

Rene Gallimard

• French Diplomat
• Married to Helga
• Fetishises the Orient

Song Liling

• Peking Opera performer
• Chinese spy
• Man posing as a woman to get information from Gallimard

Helga

• Married to Gallimard
• Eventually they get divorced
• From an important family

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

• Aesthetics are attached to morals
• Aesthetics are objective??? subjective????
• Aesthetics → philosophy of art
• Understanding of perception
• Comes from greek “aesthesis”, perception
• Talking about philosophy of art and theory of beauty
• Arts
  • Painting
  • Sculpture
  • Architecture
  • Music
  • Poetry
• 18th century
  • First time philosophers were attending to art in their own terms
  • Thematising that in theories
• Ancient Philosophy
  • Greek “Techne”, Latin “ars”, refer not only to arts, but to all types of human activities
  • Art is something to be taught/learnt
  • Different to modern theories of genius/inspiration
  • Beauty had moral connotations not present in moral perceptions
  • Poetry was highest art form, followed by music
• Middle Ages
  • Hugo of St Victor used ancient aesthetics
  • Created 7 mechanical arts
    • Hunting
    • Armament
    • Medicine
  • Music was closely linked with mathematics
  • Poetry and music taught in universities
  • Visual arts were confined to artist guilds
  • Beauty was considered in light of God and his creations
  • Euro-centric
• Renaissance
  • Did not actually formulate a system of fine arts or comprehensive theory of aesthetics
  • In Italy in 16th century, visual arts were separated from crafts very clearly for the first time
  • Painting tries to share in the traditional prestige of poetry
  • Valorisation of painting
• 17th Century
  • Cultural helm of Europe moves from Italy to France
  • Scientific revolution
  • Separation of science from other areas of inquiry creates grounds of distinction between arts and science
    • Contrasts to Hugo of St Victor
• 18th Centry
  • Term “aesthetics” is coined
  • Theory of sensuous knowledge, as opposed to technical knowledge
  • People think philosophy of art was invented here
  • Distinguish between mechanical and fine arts
  • Rise of “beaux arts” term (fine arts)
  • Notion of “Art”
  • Immanuel Kant gives art a role in philosophy
    • Speaking Arts
    • Plastic Arts
    • Arts of Beautiful Play of Sentiments
  • Kant questions beauty and taste
  • Rise of Amateur Public
    • Amateur public leads to amateur criticism
    • Idea of art of an autonomous sphere from religion
    • SEPARATION OF ART FROM RELIGION
  • Sphere of art as a secular sphere

M Butterfly Essay

• Ideas of orientalism
  • Depiction of Oriental culture by the Western world
  • Assimilation of culture
• Western superiority
• Dramatic Conventions
  • Costuming
  • Audiovisual effects
  • Dialogue
• Thesis: M Butterfly contrasts the Western with the Orient, criticising the assimilation of the West and the East. This is achieved through dramatic conventions such as costuming, audiovisual effects, and dialogue.

Costuming - difference between cultural values represents the futility of cultural assimilation

• “Song, still dressed as Butterfly, changes into a wedding kimono
  • Represents whitewashing of Oriental culture
  • Set in China, but Chinese women traditionally wear Cheongsams for their weddings, not Kimonos, which are Japanese
  • Also represents the differing cultures through “change”, i.e. different values/attitudes
• “Song enters, dressed elegantly in a black gown from the twenties. She stands in the doorway looking like Anna May Wong”
  • Again, Song is in Western Clothing to appeal to Gallimard, a conservative man
    • Anna May Wong was a Chinese Hollywood Actress who was the main role in The Toll of the Sea
    • The Toll of the Sea: Chinese Woman gets married to white man “Chinese Fashion”, who then leaves her, while she has his child
    • Reminiscent of M Butterfly (Song trying to get Gallimard to stay by saying that he is pregnant)
    • Implies that the Western world places emphasis on copulation as the highest form of love, while the Orient does not; “I have already give you my shame”, i.e. Song views his sexual love as shame

Audiovisual effects conveys the inherent racial superiorities

• “the Chinese opera music dissolves into a Western opera”
  • Represents merging of culture
  • Generally, the merging of music of different genres is considered to be chaotic and unnatural, this is used to represent the chaos created by whitewashing
  • Orient dissolves into Western, i.e. they are being colonised
  • Represents colonisation
• “music from the “Love Duet” plays over the speakers”
  • This is during Gallimard’s apparent suicide, in which he is wearing a kimono
  • perhaps even trying to understand cultures, the western music conveys that there is always an underlying sense of superiority, as we hate things different to us

Dialogue - conveys inherently racist fantasies of the Orient

• “It’s one of your favourite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man”
  • Represents the Orient as feminine and weak, and the Western world as strong. Ties into WWII, where Japan was defeated by America
  • During Vietnam War, so there is a lot of stigma against the Orient
  • West believed they were winning, and viewed the Orient as pushovers, hence the “submissive” description
• “Not like American girls. It’s true what they say about Oriental girls. They want to be treated bad!”
  • Masochism???
  • Again, speaks to stereotypical view of the Orient as feminine
  • Contrasted with American girls, i.e. American girls are less feminine than Oriental girls
  • Links to idea of submissive women from Orient

Practise Essay

Explore the ways that at least one text you have studied can be seen as a ‘call to action’ for readers to address particular social concerns.

Orientalism was a literary movement that viewed East Asia from a colonist perspective. This resulted in stigma surrounding the Orient, and beliefs that the Western world was stronger than its East Asian counterpart. This led to colonisation and assimilation of culture, i.e. “whitewashing”, and David Henry Hwang’s “M Butterfly”, criticises this. M Butterfly follows Rene Gallimard, a French Diplomat in China, as he interacts with the mysterious Song Liling, who plays to his fetishisation of the Orient, who plays . At a surface level, M Butterfly can be seen as a feminist piece of literature, critiquing the inherently patriarchal ideals present within the Western world. However, M Butterfly also provides a scathing social commentary upon Orientalism and the Western’s views of the Orient, through the use of a myriad of dramatic conventions. Costuming represents the futility of assimilation of cultures, while audiovisual effects convey the inherent racial superiorities present within Orientalism. Finally, dialogue conveys the racial fantasies within colonisation. M Butterfly addresses the detrimental effects of cultural assimilation and encourages its readers to take action and preserve their culture.

Costuming highlights the difference between cultural values, representing the futility of the assimilation of culture. Through M Butterfly, Song Liling attempts to appeal to the Western world, and adopts multiple costumes that come from various Asian cultures or representations thereof, which represents the Oriental myth and notion of Westerners not knowing the difference between cultures. For example Song “still dressed as Butterfly, changes into a wedding kimono”. Song was dressed as Madame Butterfly, the main character of the Western opera of the same name, then changes into a wedding kimono, a traditional Japanese garb, despite her Chinese heritage. This represents the entirety of the Orient, rather than just China. This also represents the whitewashing of culture, i.e. she “changes”, illustrating the differing cultures, values and attitudes of each world. This is further evident when Song “enters, dressed elegantly in a black gown from the twenties…she looks like Anna May Wong”. Anna May Wong was a Chinese Hollywood actress who portrayed many roles, notably the main lead in The Toll of the Sea, a film where a Chinese Woman gets married to a white man in “Chinese Fashion”, who then leaves her, while she has his child. This is reminiscent of M Butterfly (Song trying to get Gallimard to stay by saying that he is pregnant), and implies that the Western world places emphasis on copulation as the highest form of love, while the Orient does not, hence their differences. Furthermore, Song is trying to play to Gallimard’s views; i.e., a Chinese woman embracing Western culture and throwing away her own. Thus, M Butterfly conveys the difference between cultures, and urges readers to preserve their cultural identity.

Audiovisual effects are used to convey the underlying white supremacy within cultural assimilation. Sound design in M Butterfly blends Western and Oriental opera music, to convey a sense of cultural assimilation. However, they are often contrasted, with the Peking Opera music being percussive, and the Western music being more elegant. In the Opening act, we see ” Chinese opera music dissolves into a Western opera”. This represents merging of culture between the West and the Orient, while the Orient dissolves into Western, i.e. they are being colonised. Generally, the merging of music of different genres is considered to be chaotic and unnatural, this is used to represent the chaos created by whitewashing. Furthermore, during Gallimard’s apparent suicide, “music from the “Love Duet” plays over the speakers”. In this scene, Gallimard is wearing a kimono, a traditional garb from Japan, and is performing to Western music. However, he then appears to kill himself, potentially representing a morbid future where every culture is Westernised. Even though Gallimard is trying to understand cultures, the Western music conveys that there is always an underlying sense of superiority. In this scene, the Japanese man kills himself in a Western society, representative of the position Orientals have in a Western society, and is a motif of cultural death. This also highlights Gallimard’s ignorance of Oriental culture, as a kimono is not traditionally Chinese. Thus, M Butterfly illustrates the underlying white supremacy within cultural assimilation.

Finally, dialogue is used to highlight inherent racial fantasies about the Orient, whose people were fetishised by Westerners, due to their portrayal as weak and exotic people. This also links to to the Oriental myth of Westerners not knowing the difference between various cultures,. Demonstrative of this, Song remarks to Gallimard, “It’s one of your favourite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man”. Song challenges the Western representation of the Orient as feminine and weak, and the Western world as strong, using an accusatory tone. The play is set during the Vietnam War, so stigma against the Orient is prevalent. The West believed they were winning, and viewed the Orient as pushovers, hence the “submissive” description. This is further apparent when Pinkerton (Gallimard) remarks that the Oriental girls are “Not like American girls. It’s true what they say about Oriental girls. They want to be treated bad!” This repeated stereotypical view of the Orient as feminine is contrasted with American girls, linking to the idea of the submissive women from the Orient. This then presents the ideology of rape mentality, one that the Westerners idolise, i.e. they can violate anything because they believe it is theirs. This perhaps acts as a motif for colonisation, as they are taking away people’s rightful land, and also refers to several incidents where people of that country were violated, hence this notion of rape mentality. Thus, M Butterfly highlights the racial fantasies about the Orient.

To conclude, M Butterfly employs the use of a range of dramatic conventions such as audiovisual effects, dialogue, and costuming to highlight the white supremacy ideologies within Orientalism. M Butterfly conveys this to readers as a call to action to prevent cultural death, and to preserve their culture to share, but not to be stolen, and provides a scathing social commentary upon the discriminatory implications of Orientalism.