In Defence of Song

Was he really that bad?

How does the son of a prostitute come to be an opera singer playing female roles, a spy for the Chinese Communist Party and the wife of a French diplomat, all while under the pretence he's a submissive Chinese woman?

History of Crossdressing in Chinese Literature

Crossdressing has been a core part of Chinese entertainment for millennia, dating back to 400AD in the original Ballad of Mulan, the poem that inspired Disney's 1998 interpretation. In this fable, much like the Disney adaptation, Mulan disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army, none of her comrades suspecting she was a woman the entire time. The final stanzas of the poem conclude with:

Most people tell the gender of a rabbit by its movement: 

The male runs quickly, while the female often keeps her eyes shut. 

But when the two rabbit run side by side, 

Can you really discern whether I am a he or a she?

When dressed as a woman, assumed to be a woman and presenting in every way to be as feminine as possible, how could Gallimard be any the wiser? To Gallimard, his bias prevented him from seeing Song as anything but his submissive, female butterfly. M. Butterfly subverts this traditional tale, where instead, a man must disguise himself as a woman to serve his country.

"One, because when he finally met his fantasy woman, he wanted more than anything to believe that she was, in fact, a woman. And second, I am and Oriental. And being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man." - Song

"General Shang is a little bit too hot for an animated character" - Ms James 

Gallimard was too caught up in his Orientalist fantasies to even consider Song a man, his blatant confirmation bias preventing him from seeing what was directly in-front of him. It was not until Song strips naked in-front of Gallimard in the courtroom, dissolving the fantasy instantaneously, allowing Gallimard to see what Song was all along - "Just a man."

Crossdressing in Chinese Opera

Crossdressing also has a unique significance in Chinese opera from the "Golden Age" of Chinese theatre, the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), in which female actresses had lead roles (dan) on stage, often crossdressing to play male roles. In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) periods, private troupes maintained by the gentry and public theatres commonly featured crossdressing, predominantly female theatres. Male cross-dressing was monopolized by men during the late Qing period, and saw the fetishization of a cross-gendered body into an object of composite desires and taboos. Song, as a male actor who played female roles was an object of this fetishization and upheld traditional ideas of Chinese Opera.

Androgyny in Chinese Literature

Zuyan Zhou's theory of androgyny in Chinese literature plays a significant role in M. Butterfly, represented best in Song. As defined by Zhou, the notion of androgyny is defined as the characteristic or capacity of a person to embody both feminine and masculine traits. Androgyny is a common trope in Chinese literature, featuring archetypes such as the woman warrior or the effeminate romantic hero. In some cultures, it is valued as ideal, particularly as an approximation to a mythical state of harmonious unity. The Zhuangzian notion of cosmic chaos (hundun) preserves this mythos, whereas the central tradition of Confucianism constructed gender in the binary separation of yin and yang, feminine and masculine. Confucian thought eventually overtook these Zhuangzian notions, and the superiority of the masculine yang is prevalent in modern China.

Yin and Yang, Feminine and Masculine

As yang came to signify superiority or centrality, such as the emperor, a minister was symbolically assigned a yin position, despite his male sex. In late Ming and early Qing literature (1600-1750), ignored or marginalized officials often assumed the feminine persona of the neglected concubine, a yin trope, particularly during political crisis or illegitimate government. The period from 1600-1750 featured significant factional strife, as many political elites were estranged from power. Marginalized men tended to identify with representations and images of femininity. 

From this we can see that Song embodied the Confucian theory of the yin position, assuming the subservient, feminine persona, to fool Gallimard, promoting him to the yang position. This fuels Gallimard's Orientalist ego, and affirms his feelings of superiority over Song. This dynamic is also seen between Song and Comrade Chin. who despite being a female, assumes the dominant yang position over Song. Song is subjugated as an actor, a man and as a servant to the Chinese Communist Party, assuming a subservient. submissive role in all aspects of his life.

The Chinese Female Identity

"What passes for a woman in modern China." - Song

Well Song, what does pass for a woman in modern China? Clearly you do. The identity of a woman in China has been completely reversed, where a biological female like Comrade Chin is more masculine and dominant than Song, a biological man. The androgyny of these two characters shows how in times of political crisis, such as the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, or the Ming and Qing eras, traditional gender roles are disregarded entirely. Their political environment has caused Chin to assume masculine traits and Song to assume feminine traits to survive.

And so as we reach the end of the play, we reach the end of Gallimard's life. In the final scene of the play, the gender roles have been reversed once again. Song exits in a suit and as a man, and Gallimard exits by his own hand, wearing Geisha attire and as Madame Butterfly This is the final reference to Madama Butterfly, and Gallimard is cemented as the feminine half of his relationship with Song. Gallimard now assumes the feminine, yin role, killing himself for Song, who has finally adopted the masculine yang role.

Final words to Song Lilling

A powerful figure in M. Butterfly, and a more powerful representation of crossdressing culture and gender roles and identities in China, whilst also providing a scathing critique of Orientalist fantasies and ideas held by the West. That's quite a full sentence, but it goes to show how significant of a character Song is, which is why, he is the true hero of M. Butterfly. (joke) 

But honestly, I get how Gallimard could've been tricked.