Song: “We have always held a certain fascination for you Caucasian men, have we not?”

Gallimard: “But… that fascination is imperialist, or so you tell me.”

Song: “Yes. It is always imperialist. But sometimes… sometimes, it is also mutual.”

M. Butterfly Act 2, Scene 8.

The contrast between Eastern and Western culture is vast, and it used to be even more so. Environments, ideas, governments, and even love are quite different among these two cultures. Eastern people are known to be more passive and enjoy living life by the book. They stick to what is expected of them by society and more importantly their families. On the subject of love, they are also known to be more passive, especially the women as they’re primary role is to cook, take care of homely duties, and raise children. Westerners on the other hand, have a different mentality. Lots of them are dreamers, and will follow their own path regardless of what others may say or think. This is why entrepreneurship has grown at an extensive rate and why the West are seen as natural leaders. As far as relationships are concerned, Western people are much more vocal about their feelings than their Eastern counterparts. Expressing emotions with words and gifts for example. They are also much more equal in how the relationship is conducted as most women in western culture also have jobs and careers outside of the home. These are only some more obvious examples of how the two differ as there are many, many more.

A perfect example of Western arrogance is shown through French Diplomat Rene Gallimard’s thinking and actions in M. Butterfly. Song points out to Rene after a production at the French Embassy that the reason he thinks the story of Madame Butterfly is so beautiful is because it is told about an oriental woman that dies for a western man. He is actually surprised as he realizes this to be true and agrees with Song that the reverse roles wouldn’t exactly have the same affectionate meaning. This is because as a western man he sees the beauty in the Caucasian male ruling over the helpless oriental woman, and he continues to prove this throughout the play. At one point Rene goes as far as to tell the French Ambassador that the East is welcome to being controlled by a higher Western power. Obviously retaining this advice from his ongoing relationship with Song and again proving that he in fact does view the East in this fashion.

One example of Rene exercising his power over the helpless Song is shown when he begins to receive her letters after discontinuing his trips to the opera house. He ignores her letters, seeing that it is putting him in a position that makes Song helpless and needy for him, and continues to do so until he gets the response that he is waiting for from her. Not until Song has “given him her shame” does he finally realize the extent of his actions and he himself feels remorseful about it, for a short time. He says after reading her last letter “Reading it, I became suddenly ashamed. Yes, my experiment had been a success. She was turning on my needle. But the victory seemed hollow.” He purposely wanted to make her feel this way so that he in turn could feel the power he had over her, and it worked, he got exactly what he wanted.

Both the cause and effect here in this story are very important for the reader to understand. The causes were very purposeful. Both the western actions taken by Gallimard and the Eastern persuasions made by Song were done in order to get the exact effect that they did. Both played their roles according to their culture, knowing that the other wouldn’t be able to help themselves. Rene controlled Song by mistreating her in a way that was obvious, to make a statement that only made Song lose it and fall victim to his experiment. In the reverse role, Song who at first was a strong minded opera singer, played the damsel in distress as she knew that Rene wanted to feel power over her. They actually had the conversation about the oriental fetish before their relationship started, giving her the exact tool she needed to play him and gain his affection.

This story has done so much for me in the sense that I’ve opened my mind to understand the relationship between the two cultures. I have always seen that they are very different, but both the story and the play have helped me to see the dynamic. I personally think that the play is very sad and contains so many examples of a manipulative relationship on many different levels. The oriental woman using her helplessness to gain affection, the western man using his power to exploit that helplessness, and most of all the lies told by a man to have another man foolishly fall in love with a fake persona. I mean talk about deception! What I find so interesting about the story though is the way that Song used his knowledge of the cultural differences to keep up the charade for so long. He actually used acting helpless to gain power over the Western man and eventually gain all of his love and devotion. As much as I despise Song, he was a master of his art.

Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. New York: Plume, 1989. Print.

Trong, Tran B. "Eastern vs. Western Culture." Eastern vs. Western Culture | LCS | Lynchburg City Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2017. Web.

Tucker, Marc. "Education, Eastern Culture, and Western Values." Education Week – Top Performers. N.p., 14 July 2016. Web. 23 May 2017. Web.