Game And Power In M.Butterfly

David Henry Hwang(1957-)is one of the radiant and charismatic Chinese-American playwrights,whose works primarily narrate the conflict between Chinese American&Asian American culture and American culture.His most representative play,M.Butterfly,published in 1989,has gained the nomination for the Pulitzer and won the most prominent award of theater,Tony Award,thus becoming the focus of academia.M.Butterfly dramatizes the twenty-year relationship between Song Liling and Rene Gallimard in an appalling narration,based on the parody of Madame Butterfly and a real story of French diplomat Bouriscot and Chinese opera actor Shi Peifu.Many scholars from home and aboard delve into M.Butterfly from all types of perspectives,including deconstruction on Orientalism,gender identity,homosexuality,femininity and masculinity and so on.Some critics criticize and even attack M.Butterfly,arguing that to some extent,the cunning image of Song and the victim image of Gallimard actually perpetuate the stereotype of Asian people.As a result,after learning more about the real life of Shi and Boursicot,David Henry Hwang makes some adjustments to M.Butterfly(2017),attempting to emphasize more on gender fluidity and mediate the racial conflict.This paper structures its discussion about M.Butterfly(1989)along two focal points: game and power.It first refers to play theory to analyze the twenty-year game between Song and Gallimard to discuss Gallimard’s death and cross-dressing behavior of Song and Gallimard,and further lays bare the thematic meaning of this game to elucidate the subversion of power in gender and race through gender performativity and Orientalism theory.The paper consists of three parts: introduction,three body chapters and conclusion.In Chapter One Introduction,there are literature reviews on M.Butterfly(1989)from home and abroad,theoretical framework including play,homosexuality,gender and Orientalism,the thought of analysis and significance of the paper.The body parts are made up of three chapters.Chapter Two and Three will interpret how the twenty-year game walks from beginning to termination in order that Chapter Four can probe into the power relation of the game.Chapter Two demonstrates that how Song and Gallimard before the start of game establish three rules of game,namely requirements of Song’s female clothes,lack of language and inferiority,during three stages of negotiation over rules of game.There is also a detailed discussion about how Song and Gallimard seriously play this game under the possession of three rules of game.Chapter Three clearly states that despite the fact that Song pretends to observe rules of game,Song virtually attempts to disobey and subvert rules through behaviors,such as disrobing,speaking with homosexual implication and garnering the superior place,which plunges the game into termination.There are also clear elucidations about tragic and ritual ending of the game based on Gallimard’s homosexual tendency and homophobia.The paper in Chapter Four will discuss cultural as well as political meaning of M.Butterfly,which based on gender fluidity and racial conflict,interprets the power relation in game between Song and Gallimard through comparison among M.Butterfly(1989),Madame Butterfly,and M.Butterfly(2017).The last part of the paper,Conclusion,summarizes the game relationship between Song and Gallimard,including reasons of Gallimard’s death and cross-dressing behaviors of these two players.There is also a summary about subversion of gender and racial stereotype in this game.