...Assignment 2 December 6, 2010. Orientalism in M. Butterfly: a Struggle from Gender Identity to Political Balance Long before Song Liling made her debut as M. Butterfly on stage, there was a woman called Cho-cho-san, playing Madama Butterfly with the fullest of her life. M. Butterfly’s counterpart Madama Butterfly presents readers Cho-cho-san, a pitiful and submissive Oriental Butterfly. Cho-cho-san’s character traits fit in almost every single aspect of the ideal of Oriental women, for instance, Cho-cho-san is a geisha, an exotic representation of Japanese women in the eyes of westerners, Cho-cho-san eventually dies of seppuku, which is the Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, and her ultimate sacrifice of her everything from her religion to her very life. The attributes of Cho-cho-san are not exclusive to this character only but imposed on all Asian women. The western presupposition of some certain fixed and bounded Asian attributes defines the identity of Asian women and thus, creates an image of the sacrificial and submissive Oriental women. Moreover, the historical backgrounds of Hwang’s Butterfly and Puccini’s Butterfly are, in fact, the extension of gender tension to international power struggle. Cho-cho-san’s love story happens in the Meiji Period in which Japan first opened its door to foreigners; while Gallimard and Song Liling begins having an affair in the 1960s, in the midst of Cold War. Hwang’s M. Butterfly parodies Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by reversing...
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... is that of how Gallimard did not know that Song Liling was a man throughout the entirety of their affair. Gallimard falls in love with Song, whom he believes to be a woman, during his time as a diplomat in Beijing. Unlucky and awkward, Gallimard is an unlikely candidate for the attentions of a beautiful woman. Indeed, how is it that this affair, that spanned several years and was accomplished, enabled Song to disguise himself as a woman for so long, and so completely? The relationship between Gallimard and Song was allowed to continue without breaking the illusion simply, because people do see what they want to (or that people will refuse to see something that they do not, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary). Gallimard is influenced by the stereotypes associated with oriental women. He is particularly attached to a vision of Asian women as being modest, submissive, and extremely loyal to their men. Throughout the play Gallimard associates oriental women with various stereotypes that aren’t necessarily true. “It’s true what they say about Oriental girls. They want to be treated bad!” (Act 1, Scene 3) Gallimard knows that he isn’t the best bachelor for women and cherishes every bit of Song’s love and the feeling of power and masculinity she gives him. This is a major reason why Gallimard was blinded by the fact that Song was actually a man. The role of the Butterfly is representative of the “ideal woman” and more so embodies for Western audiences...
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...Throughout the story, Long exemplifies the Orientalist stereotypes perpetuating the gendered binaries through the two characters. Pikkerton is shown to judge Cho-Cho-San based on the Japanese stereotypes of the Asian woman as a “lotus blossom,” someone who is delicate, sensitive, dainty, and willing to be subservient to the powerful male. He will “provide her a new motive…himself…and a new religion…himself again” and encouraged her “domestic autonomy.” This leads to her losing her family and friend, who disown her after pointing out that Pikkerton is limiting Cho-Cho-San’s opportunities of “reappearing on earth in a higher form of life.” Cho-Cho-San is symbolic of the weaker, feminine, and submissive “lotus blossom.” She loves Pikkerton unconditionally, willing to “get along without ancestors,” “adopt [the] new religion” and wait for his return. However, once he does return with his American wife, Cho-Cho-San is devastated, as Pikkerton has married to an American woman, and attempts suicide. Her decision to commit suicide is symbolic of her submission to Pikkerton, indicating the submission of the feminine East to its more aggressive and masculine Western...
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...the Giacomo Puccini opera metamorphosis that was famous, in which "Madame Butterfly" became the modern geopolitical argument to understand the culture. In this film, through love relations that really did not make sense between a French diplomat and the Chinese opera singer he believed the man became the woman, how could the failure for the wish to be separated from reality result in the deception and the tragedy. Gallimard changed Sole from "only humankind" in the "Perfect Woman". Due to his insecurity about his own masculinity, Gallimard needs to create Song in the image of the perfect Asian woman, which is exotic, sensual, and acquiescent, in order to feel wholly male. Although he seeks to confine Sole within the context of his fantasy, Gallimard poster vulnerability and need actually free Sole by providing her with an outlet to flee the Orientalist representation of Asian people. Gallimard transforms Sole into a butterfly, boots instead of transforming him into one of the butterfly. Whereas Gallimard, is actually the one who eventually ends up trapped by his own fantasy. Through an analysis of Gallimard practice cultural, sexual, and personal relationship with Sole Liling, this person is a reflection of the Western rape mentality toward the East, a philosophy that is ultimately self-destructive. Orientalism was the term that referred to the study about the East culture, but, according to the colonial theory of Edward Said, also could express the West strength and the East...
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...Engendering the Subaltern Subject: The Sexual Identity of Gay Asian Men We live in a world wherein we are controlled by our society. Society dictates what can and cannot be done, what is right and wrong, what is to be accepted and what is to be shunned. In our world today, we feel the need to conform to the norm, to feel as though we somehow belong, that we are a part of something bigger – that we belong to a community. In our world today, we are also encouraged to set ourselves apart from everyone else, to be our unique; our own person, but being different is something that is not generally accepted, the very notion that society brings forth, that we need to be our own person, society also contradicts because you can only be so different – it is as if there is a certain level of difference that can be tolerated, and anything beyond that comfort zone is deemed to be wrong. Today, it has become evident that more people have gathered the courage to defy society’s comfort zones and rise above them. Now, we see an increasing number of homosexuals that are becoming more open about their sexuality, but the question there is, are they coming out of the closet explicitly? Or is it simply an implied action? In the Philippines, we have local scenes that vividly showcase homosexual pride. We see this through the pubs that welcome gay acts to perform every now and then, the parlors whose staff consists primarily of gay stylists, even through the media we see how homosexuality is showcased...
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...STARS WITHOUT NUMBER For Eden, who gave me a reason. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..............................................................................................................5 Character Creation ....................................................................................................7 Psionics ...................................................................................................................25 Equipment ..............................................................................................................33 Systems ...................................................................................................................59 The History of Space ...............................................................................................71 Game Master’s Guide ..............................................................................................78 World Generation ...................................................................................................87 Factions .................................................................................................................113 Adventure Creation ...............................................................................................128 Alien Creation .......................................................................................................138 Xenobestiary ........................................................................
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