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A play based on a true story about a French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese actress, only to realize that his exotic butterfly also identifies as male. Hwang's story highlights the beginning, middle, and end of Gallimard's descent through Song's seduction and how his appetite for dominance blinds him from the truth in front of his own two eyes. Though Gallimard earns little respect in this play, we see how he falls victim to the stereotypes assigned to men and to women, to the East and
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A really lovely little play; quick read, bitingly witty, great on gender politics. The 'surprise' of the ending was sort of ruined for me before I began, but it really didn't deter my pleasure in the actual reading. The controversial theory at hand--"Only a man can know the ideal woman" (something like that)--is so wonderfully done in the genderfuckery at work here, that I began really to see Butlerian performativity in action. Song is a fabulous character, and Gallimard is just bumbling enough
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Sep 16, 2007
Ching-In
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Nov 29, 2009
Luna Solaris
marked it as to-read
May 24, 2011
Gregory
marked it as to-read
Jun 17, 2016
KLS
marked it as to-read
