Kirtan Patel
AAST200- 0101
The Reality of M. Butterfly In David Henry Hwang’s theatre play, M. Butterfly manifests three keywords that have a greater and deeper meaning: race, gender, and Orientalism. “Race is a social construction…” (Hwang) Junaid Rana starts her definition of race by calling it a social construction. Where race was never truly a thing, it is something created to separate cultural and biological differences in a corporate class. Race was not an issue when it came down to deciding Ozawa V. United States in 1922, or even in Thind V. United States in 1923. Rana then goes on to say “...In which biology and culture are often conflated as a rhetorical logic and material practice in a system of domination.” (Hwang). She says, how …show more content…
Butterfly was a great piece. The scenery layout like we discussed in class was simplistic, yet impactful giving you exactly what you needed. There were a lot of little things like those drop-down spot lights that looked like they were from an old bar, the stereotypical cherry blossom tree that would come in and out in the back, and the wing of the butterfly giving depth to their scenes all made the play that much better. The performance was amazing, and I had a feeling Song Liling was a man due to the wig being so clear, regardless the acting was great. In the play it felt like the emotions were fully illuminated, and I could really feel each character’s emotion when they spoke. I searched for a videos or articles about David Henry Hwang, trying to see how he got this information, how he thought of this play at such early time, and just get his insight on this that play he created. I came across a YouTube video where Hwang speaks about how he found the information and how he made up certain parts of the story. However, the parts he created somehow ended up being true, for example the diplomat did really try to kill himself, however he failed. Another example is, a character named Khong, turns out there really was Khong in the story. Some information just was just pure luck, and the real Gallimard saw the play in London on the second night, and said the psychology of the play was pretty accurate. In all, I believe Hwang did an amazing job manifesting the three-keywords race, gender, and Orientalism in his play M.
AAST200- 0101
The Reality of M. Butterfly In David Henry Hwang’s theatre play, M. Butterfly manifests three keywords that have a greater and deeper meaning: race, gender, and Orientalism. “Race is a social construction…” (Hwang) Junaid Rana starts her definition of race by calling it a social construction. Where race was never truly a thing, it is something created to separate cultural and biological differences in a corporate class. Race was not an issue when it came down to deciding Ozawa V. United States in 1922, or even in Thind V. United States in 1923. Rana then goes on to say “...In which biology and culture are often conflated as a rhetorical logic and material practice in a system of domination.” (Hwang). She says, how …show more content…
Butterfly was a great piece. The scenery layout like we discussed in class was simplistic, yet impactful giving you exactly what you needed. There were a lot of little things like those drop-down spot lights that looked like they were from an old bar, the stereotypical cherry blossom tree that would come in and out in the back, and the wing of the butterfly giving depth to their scenes all made the play that much better. The performance was amazing, and I had a feeling Song Liling was a man due to the wig being so clear, regardless the acting was great. In the play it felt like the emotions were fully illuminated, and I could really feel each character’s emotion when they spoke. I searched for a videos or articles about David Henry Hwang, trying to see how he got this information, how he thought of this play at such early time, and just get his insight on this that play he created. I came across a YouTube video where Hwang speaks about how he found the information and how he made up certain parts of the story. However, the parts he created somehow ended up being true, for example the diplomat did really try to kill himself, however he failed. Another example is, a character named Khong, turns out there really was Khong in the story. Some information just was just pure luck, and the real Gallimard saw the play in London on the second night, and said the psychology of the play was pretty accurate. In all, I believe Hwang did an amazing job manifesting the three-keywords race, gender, and Orientalism in his play M.