💯trending    ⚘    Posted on Jun 7, 2023

Song Liling Is A Sassy Queer Icon, And You Can't Tell Me Otherwise

Dressing as the perfect oriental woman to seduce a French diplomat into giving up classified information? Yass Queen, slay the house boots down !!

by Annika Carleton 

Male opera performer, who cross-dressed to perform women’s roles, Song Liling masqueraded as a woman to gain access to French diplomat Rene Gallimard. Song’s understanding of the white mans psyche allows her to manipulate Gallimard through her presentation of the fantastical, “perfect”, Oriental woman. Once discovered and faced with punishment for treason, Song admits his attraction and desire for Gallimard to love him for his true self, only for Gallimard to reject him in favour of his fantasy woman. That said, Song is still a sassy queen, serving realness and slaying the house boots down! Here are 6 quotes that prove Song Liling is a FIERCE kween serving looks, spilling tea and casting shade :

1. Reading Gallimard For Filth During Their First Meeting

Gurl, the library is open and Gallimard is on the reading list ! Song not only sets the record straight about where she stands on the East vs West concept, but establishes the construction of the Oriental as a fantasy. As a concept, Orientalism is based on the ambiguous “East” being the antithesis to the West,, but it’s generalisation and stereotyping creates an entirely different entity, thus the unreality of the “Orient”. By extension, the idea of the submissive Oriental woman is also a fantasy, of which Song shreds to bits by race and gender bending the premise of the Opera on which the play is loosely based, Puccini's Madame Butterfly. So sweet Jesus what a read this is, really digging in on Gallimard's delusionality, what a slay !!

GALLIMARD: Of her death. It’s a ... a pure sacrifice. He’s unworthy, but what can she do? She loves him ... so much. It’s a very beautiful story.

SONG: Well, yes, to a Westerner.

GALLIMARD: Excuse me?

SONG: It’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man.

GALLIMARD: Well, I didn’t quite mean ...

SONG: Consider it this way: what would you say
if a blonde homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now, I believe you would consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it’s an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner—ah!—you find it beautiful.

Silence. 

2. Casting Some MAJOR Shade When Gallimard Asks to See Her Naked (because that's a major boundary cross babe !!)

GALLIMARD: I want to see you ... naked.

Silence.

SONG: I thought you understood my modesty. So you want me to—what— strip? Like a big cowboy girl? Shiny pasties on my breasts? Shall I fling my kimono over my head and yell “ya-hoo” in the process? I thought you respected my shame!

GALLIMARD: I believe you gave me your shame many years ago.

SONG: Yes—and it is just like a white devil to use it against me. I can’t believe it. I thought myself so repulsed by the passive Oriental and the cruel white man. Now I see—we are always most revolted by the things hidden within us.

It is all tea, no shade right to the face here, with song going for the jugular after Gallimard oversteps some solid-ass boundaries. Sure, Song’s motive was basically just to keep her cover intact, but that is some excellent mental imagery being evoked there. Juxtaposing the image of the meek, subservient oriental woman with that of the obnoxious western girl to further establish the cognitive dissonance between east and West? Sick’ning!! And the way it messes with Gallimard’s head as he grapples with his own delusionality?? Literally Gagging !!

3. About to confess to Gallimard ? Yass Queen live your truth !!

SONG: You know I have to. You know I will. And anyway, what difference does it make? No matter what your eyes tell you, you can’t ignore the truth. You already know too much.

Gallimard exits. Song turns to us.

SONG: The change I’m going to make requires about five minutes. So I thought you might want to take this opportunity to stretch your legs, enjoy a drink, or listen to the musicians. I’ll be here, when you return, right where you left me.

Song goes to a mirror in front of which is a wash basin of water. She starts to remove her makeup as stagelights go to half and houselights come up.

Breaking the fourth wall here, with a fantabulous truth-telling and baring of soul. Further establishing Gallimard's situation of delusion/fantasy, Song establishes the tension of her reality that she is a man dressing as a woman for the purpose of espionage, which is a super brave choice for her context, and we love her for it. This also further explore the comparison of fantasy and reality which is an underlying theme of the text. Werk it queen !!

4. Clapping Back at a Judge Asking All The Wrong Questions.

Blunt and to the point ! Go off queen, serving realness and casting shade. My Shade-Ar is beeping wildly over the amount of dusted fierceness emanating from Song. She slays the runway in putting a nosey judge in her place and laying the foundation for the tension of the final third of the play. Asking the audience to question their understanding of what is sexuality and intimacy, this section of dialogue showcases Song masculine tendencies. Brutal, blunt honesty that gets straight to the point is an almost uniquely masculine trait, as girls are often socialised to put others comfort and needs before their own, often moderating their conversations to suit. Song fails to do this, often slipping into less carefully curated language that reveals her manhood. This slipping of the mask lays the foundation for the later idea that Song was simply a woman created by a man, therefore perfectly suiting a mans desires. 

JUDGE: But surely, he must’ve ... how can I put this?

SONG: Put it however you like. I’m not shy. He must’ve felt around?

JUDGE: Mmmmm.

SONG: Not really. I did all the work. He just laid back. Of course we did enjoy more ... complete union, and I suppose he might have wondered why I was always on my stomach, but.... But what you’re thinking is. “Of course a wrist must’ve brushed ... a hand hit ... over twenty years!” Yeah. Well, Your Honor, it was my job to make him think I was a woman. And chew on this: it wasn’t all that hard. See, my mother was a prostitute along the Bundt before the Revolution. And, uh, I think it’s fair to say she learned a few things about Western men. So I borrowed her knowledge. In service to my country.

5. His 2 Rules For Deceiving White Men

SONG: Basically, “Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.” The West thinks of itself as masculine—big guns, big industry, big money—so the East is feminine—weak, delicate, poor ... but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom—the feminine mystique. Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes. The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated—because a woman can’t think for herself.

JUDGE: What does this have to do with my question?

SONG: You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men. That’s why you say they make the best wives.

JUDGE: But why would that make it possible for you to fool Monsieur

Gallimard? Please—get to the point.

SONG: 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 an Oriental. And being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man.

Pause.

JUDGE: Your armchair political theory is tenuous, Monsieur Song.

SONG: You think so? That’s why you’ll lose in all your dealings with the East.

Bye, girl, bye !! This take sums up the intersection of race and gender specifically in the sphere of the east and femininity, being both perceived as voluntarily submissive whether that is reality or not. And Song keeps it real here, calling out both the West and the Patriarchy and the ways in which they coexist and inform each other. Her line "I am an Oriental. And being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man." is all tea, all shade in pointing out the similarities of oppression, and somewhat justifying her behaviour in front of the court, challenging the dominant idea that homosexuality is a perversion. In this court scene she slays the runway, and her dramatic exit, ooohh sashay away queen !

6. Gaslighting, Gatekeeping, Girlbossing. Getting Gallimard to Go for Him. 

 

Song holds out his arm to Gallimard.

SONG: It’s the same skin you’ve worshiped for years. Touch it.

GALLIMARD: Yes, it does feel the same.

SONG: Now—close your eyes. 

Song covers Gallimard’s eyes with one hand. With the other, Song draws Gallimard’s hand up to his face. Gallimard, like a blind man, lets his hands run over Song’s face.

GALLIMARD: This skin, I remember. The curve of her face, the softness of her cheek, her hair against the back of my hand ...

SONG: I’m your Butterfly. Under the robes, beneath everything, it was always me. Now, open your eyes and admit it—you adore me. (He removes his hand from Gallimard’s eyes)

GALLIMARD: You, who knew every inch of my desires—how could you, of all people, have made such a mistake?

SONG: What?

GALLIMARD: You showed me your true self. When all I loved was the lie. A perfect lie, which you let fall to the ground—and now, it’s old and soiled.

SONG: So—you never really loved me? Only when I was playing a part?

GALLIMARD: I’m a man who loved a woman created by a man. Everything else—simply falls short.

No tea no shade here, but this final scene is on point !! Slayed the house boots down !! Living her truth, Song shows Gallimard the reality, that he is the same person underneath, only for him to be so stuck on his fantasy woman that he refuses to accept it, and retreats to his dreams. Busted behaviour IMO, but we can clock his underlying gayness in Gallimard's desire to be loved. Admittedly, Song isn't necessarily sassy here, but she is raw, real and fierce, attributes I can respect in a queen. This penultimate scene explores sexuality in a way that supersedes gender and challenges traditional ideas of love between a man and a woman, and how love is defined by biology. In this case, love is defined by a delusional fantasy on Gallimard's part, and potentially on Song's too. 

Ultimately, Songs sass, fierceness and realness makes her a queer icon, and her dialogue is used within the play to present the reality of issues of race, gender, and their intersection through her blunt delivery of such lines. Sharp wit and manipulative humour are strengths of hers, making her my queer icon for the foreseeable future. Until next time queens, stay fierce !!