M. Butterfly
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M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang, which deals with themes about cultural stereotypes of East vs West (see Orientalism), and is loosely based on the real life relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu. The play was inspired by the opera Madame Butterfly.
The main character (Rene Gallimard) is a civil servant attached to the French embassy in China. He falls in love with a beautiful opera singer (Song Liling), who is, unbeknownst to Gallimard, a man masquerading as a woman. (Note that in traditional Beijing opera, women's roles were performed by male dan, or specialists in feminine roles.) The singer spies on Gallimard for the Chinese government, using Gallimard's own fantasies of submissive oriental femininity to decieve and manipulate him. After an affair spanning twenty years, the truth is revealed and Gallimard is tried and convicted of treason. Imprisoned, Gallimard retreats into a fantasy world rather than acknowledge that his 'perfect woman' is in fact a man.
The original cast featured John Lithgow as Gallimard and B.D. Wong as Song Liling. David Dukes, Anthony Hopkins, Tony Randall, and John Rubenstein also played Gallimard during the original run.
The play was made into a 1993 movie directed by David Cronenberg.