Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

Hi. I'm a first time poster, but I've been following the comm for a while. Please let me know if I missed following a rule for posting, and I'll go back and correct it.

Maybe many of you have already seen the movie or a live performance of M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang. I've only seen a few parts of the movie, so I don't know how well it interpreted the play.

Well, I just read the play and it is fantastic.

The story centers around a French diplomat and a Chinese Spy, whom, thanks to his blind privileging of the West (and white masculinity), the diplomat believes to be a woman. They carry on an affair for twenty years, without the diplomat discovering that his lover is a man.

I think this would be a good introduction to issues surrounding racism, sexism and imperialism for someone who has not thought deeply about such issues before, because it is a play. I think theatre, in ways that perhaps some other forms of art cannot express, is able to allow people who normally do not step out of their own mind-state to place themselves in the shoes of another and walk around for a while. Other books do this as well, of course, but there is something different about a play. I think that it is because they are dialogue-heavy, and that, when you boil it down, they are composed of voices; if you are going to enjoy the play you really have to listen and to visualize the action, even when it becomes painful and part of you would rather turn away.

In this case, the voices Hwang creates are sharp, clear, and cut deeply to the heart of prejudice and pride. Gallimard, the French diplomat, and Song Liling (Butterfly), the Chinese Opera Singer/Spy are the two characters around whom the plot turns. The lovers act out the story of Madame Butterfly, the (heavily sexist and racist) Opera by Puccini in the context of the Revolution in China during the 1960's and 70's. Gallimard, influenced by this opera and his own prideful ignorance, fails to see the East and his lover for what they really are. He instead lives in a fantasy world chiefly of his own creation, a situation which Song exploits but that also costs him/her a great deal. When Gallimard is caught, the tables are turned, and he becomes trapped by his own fantasy.

I love reading plays, as well as seeing them performed. This is now at the top of my play list, and I am going to read it again soon.