M Butterfly

In the movie, M Butterfly the French Rene Gallimard is living in China during the 1960s.  He goes to watch the play Madame Butterfly staring Song Liling.  In Madame Butterfly, Liling plays a Japanese girl who commits suicide after her American husband leaves her. After Liling's performance, Gallimard is infatuated with her and starts having an affair, even though he is married. In the end, it is revealed that Liling is actually a man and in response to this discovery, Gallimard kills himself.  This tragic love story has underlying themes of gender and ethnicity in the 1960s.

            After Gallimard becomes so obsessed with Liling, we see a forbidden love affair develop.  Gallimard becomes so in love with Liling he fails to recognize that Liling is actually a man.  Liling never takes off his clothes in front of Gallimard because he persuades Gallimard into thinking that Chinese women are very modest.  This persuasion is one of the events that highlights the stereotypical roles that men and women in this society play.  Gallimard plays the strong and independent man.  Gallimard is the breadwinner of the family and we see him go out into the world and achieve anything he wants, including snagging Liling.  Although he is having an affair, it seems he has absolutely no remorse and thinks that his actions are justified because he is so in love with Liling.  On the other hand the characters such as Liling and Gallimard’s wife play the stereotypical woman who is dependent on the man and weak without them.  Throughout the movie, Gallimard’s wife is expected to wait on Gallimard and must stay home and play the housewive.  It seems that her husband controls her just because he is a man.  This generalized take on a woman’s role is also evident in the relationship between Gallimard and Liling.  During their time together, Liling convinces Gallimard that he cannot take her clothes off because Chinese women are pure and modest.  While this is a ploy to prevent Gallimard from finding out Liling is actually a man it also represents how Liling believes women should act. 

            Another prominent theme through the movie was that of ethnicity.  Throughout the movie we see the Western society acting like they are more superior to the Eastern Asian society.  This is most directly seen when Liling explains that if the play had starred an Asian man and a white woman instead of the other way around, people would think that the story was idiotic and didn’t make sense.  We can also see this happening when Gallimard feels he must save Liling and protect him.  Gallimard feels that the best option is to take Liling to France because they are a better and more put together society.  This was also evident in the political issues that were taking place at the time.  The French felt that because they were a Western race they could claim dominance over Eastern Asian culture. 

            The movie of M Butterfly comes to a staggering climax first when we find out Liling is actually a man and when Gallimard becomes so depressed over this he commits suicide.  While the movie has a very twisted ending, it wonderfully expresses the themes of gender and ethnicity in the 1960s.