Reading Response to M Butterfly - the Wests Feminization of Asia - Essay Example

Reading Response to “M. Butterfly A Study on the West’s Feminization of Asia In his play, “M. Butterfly”, David H. Hwang has subverted the usual, more accurately, the traditional gender role and relation to divulge the true temperament of the Western hegemonic predisposition to feminize the Orient. Noticeably these masculine self-portrayal and self-perception of the Westerns are inclined to shape the rapport between the races in the western white society. This exposure of the West’s hegemonic self fundamentally compels Hwang to deconstruct and to destabilize the customary gender and racial stereotypes. By allowing the central character Gallimard indulge into the masked male-geisha, Linling’s love, and face the following exposure of Linling’s real gender, Hwang has manipulated a unique theatrical space for his readers to experience the extremity of the West’s response to the orients’ self-proclaimed masculine activities. The development of the West’s stereotypical approach towards the feminization of the Asians, the meek orients in the West hegemonic language, as an overriding idea of the play primarily revolves around the protagonist’s tragically defective tendency to believe the male-geisha Liling as a woman. While at one edge of this gender-confused liaison, Gallimard characterizes the West’s customary narrow-minded and hegemonic attitudes towards the Asians, their culture and nations, Liling serves as an agent of the masked oriental manliness. Gallimard as a representative of the West hegemonic masculine self is prone to accept Song Liling as a girl. Indeed his perception of Song is a typical extension of his assumption of the Chinese and Asians in general. Again since Hwang’s protagonist habitually is inclined to stereotype the Chinese women as subservient, compliant, submissive, and modest, the stereotypical feminine role, flawlessly played by Song Liling, keeps the truth of Song’s identity away from being revealed to Gallimard, without much effort. Indeed Hwang’s protagonist’s hegemonic and typical colonial attitude towards oriental cultures determines most part the relationship between Gallimard and Song. Gallimard’s tendency to stereotype Asian women is evident in the following lines: “She is outwardly bold and outspoken, yet her heart is shy and afraid. It is the Oriental in her at war with her Western education.” (27) The play’s theme is serious and finally it turns into tragic. But the development of the theme is such that Hwang’s play cannot but assume a slight comic tone due to reversed gender relation. Yet in the play, Hwang’s primary tone is serious, grave and tragic. His deconstructive approach to the East-West relationship consists of both the naturalistic and fantastic elements. By employing one of the characters in the traditional role of a geisha he starts his play on a fairly natural basis. Also Gallimard-Song relationship progresses most naturally according to the cultural and traditional expectation of the society, until the truth is revealed in the second half of Scene II. This dramatic revelation of Song Liling’s true identity is, though entertaining for Hwang’s audience, surprising as a marvelous fantasy of the author. Dissolving the fourth wall of gender identity, Gallimard repeatedly reminds the spectators of his masculinity achieved through the love of a "perfect woman." Yet, the purportedly prefect female character is found to be very male. Song Lilling appears to be a clever actor, who is found to have profound knowledge about the male desires and male-expectation about a woman. He knows the qualities of an ideal women desired by most men. The followings are some of the womanly virtues and qualities that Song manipulates to ensnare Gallimard: a. Self-sacrifice, b. shrewd womanly submissiveness, c. the ability to produce offspring, d. Physical beauty, and e. Oriental modesty mixed with sexiness. At the end of the play, Gallimard eventually learns the truth about Song Lilling. He perceives that Song is, indeed, a man, and a cold, calculative and abusive one. Subsequently he realizes the disparity between reality and fantasy. After the staging of “Madame Butterfly”, Song Lilling transforms his personality to be a woman with double identities. First, he attempts to appear as “a delicate Oriental woman” (Hwang 22) who possesses “a Western woman’s strong face up” (Hwang 30). Song acts as though s/he is a timid and modest Asian or oriental woman with westernized facade. Such dual identity is also visible in his reasoning: “[As] a woman, especially a delicate Oriental woman—we always go where we please [because] we have always held a certain fascination for you Caucasian men” (Hwang 22). At the first and second meetings with Gallimard, Song conjures up his/her persona by mixing the East with the Westerners’ stereotypical view of the orients. He creates the impression about her female facade as a modern independent woman instead of being a submissive one. But when he invites Gallimard to his own apartment, he changes his persona from a modern woman to a timid orient. Such mixed persona is evident in Song’s confession: Hard as I try to be modern, to speak like a man, to hold a Western woman’s strong face up to my own… in the end, I fail. A small, frightened heart beats too quickly and gives me away. Monsieur Gallimard, I’m a Chinese girl. I’ve never…never invited a man up to my flat before. The forwardness of my actions makes my skin burn. (Hwang 31) This deconstructive approach of Hwang to the East-West relationship is not natural, by its own definition the deconstruction of the established stereotypes in the post-colonial world is engaged to seek for different meanings and perceptions going outside the boundary of the stereotyped views. The fact to what extent Hwang’s approach to the aforementioned theme is neutral may engender controversy, since he chooses to make his protagonist play dangerously on the verge of fantasy. Though Liling’s role as a geisha has its in root in the Chinese culture, his 15-years relationship as a woman with Gallimard is based on fantasy and Hwang makes it possible only within the realm of the play. In such a world of fantasy, Hwang decision to reverse the final scene of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, in which the deserted Japanese girl commits suicide, through Gallimard’s suicide seems to be the author’s vindictiveness for the West. But in a roundabout way, the scene can be assumed as the West’s soreness of castrated power. Necessarily Hwang contends that Song Liling materializes the West’s fear castration and Gallimard’s suicide is the extremity of the West’s reaction. Hwang’s depiction of the West’s conventional prejudices for the orients through these reversals of the gender relationship of a western official with a self-concealed male Song greatly assist him to draw his audience’s attention to the tragic flaws of the West’s attitude to Asians and at the same time, to the root of the East-West tensions and conflicts of interests. Apart from this political message, Hwang’s play “M. Butterfly” attempts to uphold the socio-cultural constructs of gender. The author purports that one’s gender does not necessarily depend upon one’s biological features; rather gender grows through one’s actions within the rigid regulatory framework of the society. Even being a man, Song can adapt himself with a female’s role for more than 20 years. But being ideally castrated by a male spy in a female role, Gallimard becomes forced to kill himself in a stereotypically womanly manner by stabbing his heart with a dagger. Works Cited Hwang, D. Henry. M. Butterfly. New York: Bentham Publishers, 2001 Read More