“I Am Not Just a Man”: Chinese Butterfly’s Identity Anxiety and Ethical Predicament in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

Abstract

M. Butterfly is narrated through the memory of Western white man Rene Gallimard, which makes the audience focus on Gallimard’s behaviors and ignore the Oriental man Song Liling’s emotions, actions, and choices. However, there are many plots portraying Song as a Chinese Butterfly to deconstruct the stereotype of Madame Butterfly. This paper, from the perspective of ethical literary criticism, probes into Song’s brain texts formed in their growth and working experience and analyzes Song’s anxiety and confusion about his multiple and chaotic ethical identities, so as to demonstrate that Song is not a “dragon lady” or a “transvestite”. In China, Song is feminized and marginalized in society as “a son of a prostitute”, “a gay”, and “an Opera actor”. He wants to change the situation, so he becomes “a spy” for the Chinese government and “a lover” for Gallimard. Still, due to the failure of ethical enlightenment in childhood and the cruel social environment in China, Song is trapped in ethical predicaments of “to be or not to be”, struggling in the ethical conflicts between the honor of the individual and the interest of the nation, as well as between the desire for love and the mission from government. The song is a victim of the era and politics, and his identity anxiety and ethical predicament reflect David Henry Hwang’s position as an Asian American playwright and reveal his ethical appeal for gender equality, identity recognition and cultural confidence.