The “feminisation of the oriental” has traditionally been explored by casting those who do not identify as a woman, such as B.D. Tickets: #butterfly #adctheatre /x2Q0EeY5sR Tue 17 – Sat 21 May at 7.45pm, ADC Theatre The Tony Award-winning M BUTTERFLY retells of the story of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.Ī French diplomat falls in love with a mystical Beijing Opera singer. Observation of Song exclusively through Gallimard’s eyes leads to a “blurring of fantasty and reality” for the audience as “it is never clear whether Song has actually said something or if Gallimard has imagined them saying something because of his inability to see them beyond the fetishized lens.” And being an Oriental, I could never fully be a man.” – Song Liling Butterfly, written by David Henry Hwang, follows “Rene Gallimard (Joe Harrington), a French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese opera singer, Song.” Yet as Charmaine points out, Gallimard does not fall in love with Song but rather with the “orientalist idea of Song” – his projection of Song who he sees as “his poor little treasure”, a “weak, delicate little lotus blossom.” This fetishization and feminisation of Song, Charmaine argues, speaks to a wider issue of Western perceptions of “Asians as feminine, delicate and weak.” “I am an Oriental. Butterfly, the ADC’s Week 3 show works to expose this façade, whilst also “exploring the intersections of gender, queerness and culture.” I sat down with the show’s co-director Tungsten Tang and actress Charmaine Au-Yeung to find out more.įor those not familiar with the production, M. Of all the lies the West perpetuates “Colonialism is over!” may be the most heinous.

Butterfly wong chinese opera