David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly Wins a Tony Award

Similar to the Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys who acknowledge talents in the entertainment business, the Antoinette Perry Award (aka Tony Award) gives out awards to only a select few based on how well performances are performed in the live American theatre. Made of out brass, these awards have the appearance of medallions with images of the comedy and tragedy masks on one side and a picture of Antoinette Perry herself on the other. I sure would like to get one for myself!

The feeling of being recognized for such a successful and thought-provoking work with the presentation of a prestige award such as Tony Award can bring happiness and joy. This is what David Henry Hwang must have felt when he was given a Tony Award for Best Play for his work, M. Butterfly in 1989.

The play is inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly as well as real-life events concerning a political scandal between a French diplomat, Bernanard Boorsacot and a male opera singer, Shi Pei Pu. Renaming the characters, Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, Hwang loosely reconstructs this love affair in his play. The plot begins with Gallimard serving the French embassy located in China. He is quick to fall in love with Song when he sees her performing Madama Butterly on stage. It wasn’t until twenty years later did their affair was revealed and Gallimard was accused of treason of leaking confidential French information to the Chinese and was sent to prison. Although the plot is already brewing with excitement and drama, that is not the most shocking part. The real identity of Song is not a woman, but a man! It is crazy to think that Gallimard did not know of his lover’s gender after years of being together! But after realizing that his “perfect women” is nothing more than an illusion, he becomes depress and later commits suicide.

Throughout the play, Hwang continuously incorporate false stereotypes that the Westerners have made up for the Chinese. Ingrained in his mind that Asian women are meek and submissive, Gallimard is quick to embody a male opera singer into his “ideal woman.” At one point of the play, Song questions why a woman’s role is traditionally played by men in China. In response, the answer is given that a “man knows how a woman is suppose to act.” With Song purposely acting submissive towards Gallimard brings up the unwanted stereotypes that the West has held up against the East. When Song’s finally comes out as a man dressed up as a woman, Hwang emphasizes the deconstruction of Asian stereotypes. With the knowledge that their affair was a lie, Gallimard is left with nothing and is destroyed by his own values of love and life.

Overall, this play represents the misconceptions that the West has on the East and attempts to break out of those stereotypes to form new ones that are more accurate.