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| Geraldine Farrar as Madama Butterfly, 1907Metropolitan Opera de Nova York |
I, who have never met an ugly Asian, sat down to think about
Kelvin's prompt. My Asian experience is all within the USA. Here
are the highlights summarized chronologically:
1. Uncle Nishino
2. Chinese and Indian
food
3. Taiwanese roommate
Ye Fe Chou
4. Madame
Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini
5. Japanese set
designer Jun Maeda
6. Butoh dancers
7. Chinese Canadian
Ping Chong and Company
8. Korean students of English as
a second Language
9. Thai food
10. Noh theatre
11. Kabuki Theatre
12. Chinese Opera
13. M. Butterfly by David
Henry Hwang
14. Tea by Maxine Hong Kingston
15. Bunraku
16. Vietnamese students in Public School
English classes
17. World Affairs Council Seminar in
South East Asian Culture
Of these, Number 13 was probably the most intense. I saw Hwang's M. Butterfly first on Broadway, second in text (as part of the "Freshman Seminar in Multi-Cultural American Drama" I taught at the College of William and Mary), and third as a Hollywood movie. Only the movie disappointed.
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The
Broadway play in 1989 with actors John
Lithgow as Gallimard and BD Wong as
Song Liling literally put me in my place. Not forewarned about the
content and message of the piece nor anticipating its relationship to Madame
Butterfly, I was taken in by the same racist stereotypes as Gallimard who
was “loosely based on” French diplomat Bernard
Boursicot and his relationship with Shi Pei Pu,
a male Peking
opera singer. Here is Wikipedia’s
summary of the
plot:
The
first act introduces the main character, Rene Gallimard, who is a civil servant
attached to the French embassy in China. He falls in love with a beautiful
Chinese opera diva, Song Liling, who is actually a man masquerading as a woman.
In traditional Beijing opera, females were banned from the stage;
all female roles (dan) were played by males.
Act
two begins with Song coming to France and resuming his affair with Gallimard.
They stay together for 20 years until the truth is revealed, and Gallimard is
convicted of treason and imprisoned. Unable to face the fact that his
"perfect woman" is actually a man, that has been posing as a woman
for 20 years to be able to spy, he retreats deep within himself and his
memories. The action of the play is depicted as his disordered, distorted
recollection of the events surrounding their affair.
The
third act portrays Gallimard committing seppuku (also
known as harakiri, ritual Japanese suicide through
self-disembowelment) while Song watches and smokes a cigarette.
So what were the stereotypes?
The
worst is that all of Asia is feminine/submissive to the male western world—HA! Here
are some memorable quotes from the play found at Goodreads:
“As soon as a Western man comes into contact
with the East -- he's already confused. The
West has sort of an international rape mentality towards the East.
...Basically, 'Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.' The West thinks of
itself as masculine -- big guns, big industry, big money -- so the East is
feminine -- weak, delicate, poor...but good at art, and full of inscrutable
wisdom -- the feminine mystique. Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes. The
West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated -- because a woman
can't think for herself. ...You expect Oriental countries to submit to your
guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
“Consider it this way: what would you say if a
blond homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He
treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays
to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she
learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now I believe you should consider
this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it's an Oriental who
kills herself for a Westerner–ah!–you find it beautiful.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
“Why, in the Peking Opera, are women's roles
played by men?...Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
“Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy
from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
The
classes I have taught since 1989 have all, in one way or another, been about identity
vs. stereotypes/expectations. I champion curiosity, inquiry, listening. As in Kelvin’s prompt, the results I am after
are much bigger, but we start always with individual experience. I enjoy diversity.
I
first learned I was white European and racist in 1969, two decades before this
play taught me the depth of that racism, sexism, and classism. I was getting on a Greyhound bus in Worcester,
MA, to travel to Albany, NY where my parents were waiting for me. I looked up
and saw all the faces, all black faces. I
had never been in a place where everyone else was Black, and I wondered for the
first time in my life how it felt for my African-American friends to experience
White. My first instinct was to back up
and step off the bus, but I didn't I
walked to the back of the bus and sat down.
I had experienced difference, but not danger—I hope I will never know the full
extent of racism experientially.
Now
I love that this life-changing moment occurred on Memorial Day weekend. Insight into self, good or bad, is always
memorable.
Thank you, Kelvin S.M.
Thank you, Kelvin S.M.
