C. Song Liling as the Convincing Oriental Butterfly Gallimard meets Song Liling in a German ambassador’s house. At that time, Song is the opera diva performing Butterfly of Madama Butterfly on the stage. In fact, Gallimard is not into opera; however, Song’s performance, especially the death scene of Butterfly, has changed his idea to opera as well as Madama Butterfly. In Gallimard’s previous experiences, he has “always seen it played by huge women in so much bad makeup” (Hwang 16). Nonetheless, when Butterfly is played by an Oriental woman, it becomes convincing to Gallimard.
Even if Song Liling is a Chinese woman, not a Japanese woman, Gallimard believes that Song Liling is that Japanese Butterfly. In other words, Gallimard not only fails to tell the differences between the Chinese and Japanese, he has even homogenised these two different places and cultures by suggesting that Song’s performance completely makes Gallimard believe she is a Japanese (Hwang 17). It appears that Song Liling’s national identity does not influence Gallimard’s understanding in Madama Butterfly. In Gallimard’s perspective, so long as Song is Chinese, she is the Oriental woman and she would be the perfect figure to play Butterfly. That is, the distinctions between the Japanese woman and the Chinese woman are absolutely ignored since they are all labelled as the Oriental woman. The Orient in a way is probably a big region without the strictly national difference to the Occident; therefore, every