M. Butterfly: With an Afterword by the Playwright

I have read both the original version and Broadway version and I definitely prefer the new version. The narrative is woven together better and it uses more facts from the real case to tie this story together better. As a story, what more needs to be said? This is a beautiful and breathtaking work, based off a fantastical real life situation that Hwang helps us understand and give context to using this play. Gallimard is a wonderfully complex characters, simultaneously aware of the imbalanced power dynamics that brought him into this situation but unable to stop himself from taking advantage once he has it. Song Liling both exemplifies the sensuality of the ideal of the female gender while also showing how fragile and manufactured it is. The butterfly twist at the end was amazing. Both are characters trying to navigate and triumph in society's strict gender roles as well as play roles in the global power struggles between China and the western world in that time, and it's a great human perspective on this part of history. For those of you who want to see a modern nan dan/Song Liling (minus the political subterfuge), please go check out Li Yu Gang on youtube. Although he has not had proper Chinese opera training, he's succeeded in portraying the idea Chinese beauty, the pinnacle of womanhood, and he's constantly praised for being beautiful in costume and in his beautiful, feminine, singing voice. I kept picturing him the whole time I read this play.

Wow, this might be the best play I've ever read. The exposition is phenomenal, the unique stage directions really making you vividly imagine the play. Don't watch the Jeremy Irons movie and say you read it if this is for a class, the movie is awful ESPECIALLY compared to this awesome book. It really brings to light the harmful/incorrect nature of orientalism and you see this stereotype (as in, the Asian woman being submissive and modest) come to bite the protagonist in the butt in the end. Very interesting read, I don't know much about the Vietnam War or anything in this era but I understood everything I was reading and couldn't put it down. You won't regret reading this!

Written by David Henry Hwang, M. BUTTERFLY opened on Broadway in 1988 and played over seven hundred performances before closing in 1990. Casting is demanding. The play requires four actors, one of whom must be Asian, sing well, and convincing impersonate a woman; three women; and three male dancers who can perform traditional Chinese theatre dance. The Asian actor and one of the women appear nude in the play, and while the woman’s nudity may be more implied than literal, it is difficult to imagine how the male nudity (which is briefly frontal) can be avoided. The set is equally demanding. The play is written in three acts. Each act contains multiple scenes that occur in different locations at different points between 1966 and 1988, and the set must be able to support rapid shifts in time and place. M. BUTTERFLY is an extremely complex script that operates on several different levels. In one sense, it is a view of the culture clash between east and west; in another sense, it makes a statement on gender roles and the perception of gender, and the multiple ways in which gender can be exploited. The play draws heavily from the Puccini opera MADAME BUTTERFLY, which tells the story of a Japanese geisha who commits suicide when her American husband abandons her, but the play ultimately inverts these roles. The play also draws heavily from the espionage scandal of real-life French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and his lover, Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu, who used their relationship to pass secret information to the Chinese government during the Vietnam War. It is difficult to discuss the play without revealing the plot devices which make the play so intriguing. Although the espionage element drives the plot, the play is actually more concerned with the way in which people deceive themselves about each other, and how that delusion can operate in even the most physically intimate relationships. We are not always who we think we are, and the people around us are not always who they seem to be. Given the difficulties of casting and set, I think the play is very unlikely to be seen in a community theatre or educational (college, university) theatre; it requires access to a talent pool that few such theatres have. Plays are written to be seen, not read, and M. BUTTERFLY is a case in point. It is very, very difficult to read this script and imagine how it was staged in your head. Act One reads rather slow, and Act Two and Three seem better written in a literary sense, but this does not necessarily have a relation to how the script actually performs in front a live audience. I think this is a script best left to people who are knowledgeable about theatre. Recommended even so. GFT, Amazon Reviewer

loved it! and quality of print was good

GREAT

This is by far one of my favorite works by DHH. I used it to study in my Asian literature class and I'd read it again. It was an interesting take on real-life events and this play also found its way to Broadway. Good read.

Interesting read...It's kind of hard to dive into, but David Henry Hwang is an amazing author with a brilliant mind.

One of the strangest delusions you will have ever heard of. A French diplomat had an affair for 20 years with a Beijing opera singer. The diplomat claims not to have known that all Beijing opera singers are male. The play considers Western stereotypes about the manliness of Asian men. I would like to see this play performed.

昔ジェレミーアイアンとジョンローンが共演する映画を見て、この作品の原作を探しました。 なかなかいいキャスティングでしたね、あの映画。ジョンローンの女装が結構素敵で。（でもひげちょっと濃かったケド） この話は実話を基にしています。１９６４年のお話です。 どうして２０年の間こんなことに気づかなかったんだろう、あほな男だ、というのがたいていのみんなの感想だと思いますが、この作品を読んでみると、いかに文化の壁が厚いか、偏見や、イメージが人の行動や意見、相手に対する態度を簡単に変えてしまえるのかが理解できる気がします。私は海外に住んでいますが、いまだに「腹きり」とかそういうイメージを持っている人がいることに驚くくらいですから。西洋と東洋の壁は厚いのです。

Was driven to acquire and read this book through a third party; it had been included in their reading list as part of a dissertation for an MA Course; I was to provide an opinion afterwards. Apart from the great Bard et al, M. BUTTERFLY is the only modern play one has read from cover to cover. The title is loosely based on Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly; the play is set in the late 1950's, during French occupation of Vietnam. If there is a connection between play and opera, it is a tenuous one; since one hasn't delved at all into the background details of the opera, in order to be able provide a more substantive and authoritative portrayal of the character of Madame Butterfly. The plot has many story-lines; some of which will stretch the Reader's imagination! For example, the French Diplomat had a 20 year relationship with a Chinese Concubine....who turned out to be Chinese... but no Concubine! Overall, the play was creative and entertaining; the psychology underpinning it, had very dark undertones . After reading the play, one was left with a tantalising thought in regard to Puccini's Prima Dona!

The pages are not so much. So if you don't want to spend money, you can take Xerox or some. BUT IF YOU'RE A LIT STUDENT OR BOOK LOVER, THEN THIS BOOK IS THE BEST IF YOU BUY IT LIKE THIS!

Perfect for college students who are doing online school.

Geschichte mit unerwarteten Wendungen, regt zum nachdenken an und wirklich empfehlenswert