M. Butterfly #1

Gallimard’s descriptions of Chinese society can be described as David Hwang’s critique of Western culture and its underlying belief in benevolence of Western ideas. Gallimard’s image of the perfect Orient can be manifested in the play ‘Madam Butterfly,’ a Western creation that idealizes Orient culture as being submissive to the West. This can be depicted by Gallimard’s absolute belief in the authenticity of the romantic relationship between Western male character (Pinkerton) and the Oriental female character (Butterfly) in the Western Play. The overall idea in ‘Madam Butterfly’ that Gallimard reveres, is that Oriental women loathe their ‘senile (18)’ culture by becoming falling in unrequited love with a Western male.

‘GALLIMARD: There is a vision of the Orient that I have. Of slender women in chong sams and kimonos who die for the love of unworthy foreign devils. Who are born and raised to be the perfect women. Who take whatever punishment we give them, and bounce back, strengthened by love, unconditionally. It is a vision that has become my life (91).’

Gallimard’s views do not only extend to the idea woman. He is so steeped in Western views of Oriental culture that he extends the ideas of ‘Madam Butterfly’ to generalizations about how Orientals value life.

‘GALLIMARD: And somehow the American war went wrong too. Four hundred thousand dollars were being spent for every Viet Cong killed; so General Westemoreland’s remark that the Oriental does not value life the way Americans do was oddly accurate. Why weren’t the Vietnamese people giving in? Why were they content instead to die and die and die again (68)?'

Gallimard’s intellectual process that he used to arrive at this statement can also be attributed to his romanticize notions of oriental women. He believes that women are undervalued in society and as a result need Western men like him to ‘protect’ and ‘pamper’ them until they ‘smiled (16).’ Gallimard’s leap from the idea that Oriental culture devalues women to the generalization that Orientals devalue life is the author’s illustration of the assumptions Western society holds about the mystique of the Orient.

Gallimard’s assumptions is not his own, its an example of the thought process of the West. The example of intellectual progression that lead to American involvement in Vietnam, the racist ‘Madam Butterfly’ play, and a French diplomat’s lust for an Oriental man masquerading as a woman. The reader can conclude that the author finds Western views of the Orient to be racist, dangerous and even comedic.