Gender and Power Relations in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly: The Challenge to the Binary Opposition Between the East and the West

Abstract

David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly tells about a French diplomat, Gallimard, who has a 20 year relationship with his Chinese lover, Song, who turns out to be a male spy. Gallimard, representing the West, has the western rape mentality toward the East represented by Song, who is positioned as the submissive other. M. Butterfly plays with the notion of gender by presenting the relationship between Gallimard and Song that destabilizes gender and the binary of not only masculinity and femininity but also power and susceptibility. It also challenges the binary opposition between the East and the West. Key words: gender, the other, western rape mentality, the East, the West