We have studied various stereotypes of cultural others, including the Chinese resistance of its own past and Western imperial powers, the Japanese fascination of what was loosely termed the "West," south Korean anxiety about their north Korean "halves," and more recently the ever fluctuating images of different ethnic groups in America, especially Asian Americans. Further, the strains between tradition and modernity, power, race, and gender complicate the image-making and stereotyping.

David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly draws attention to the stereotypes of Asians. Read those scenes in which Comrade Chin is involved. How do the Chinese see Americans and the Europeans (e.g. Rene Gallimard)? Orientalism in "M. Butterfly" has been widely discussed, but the play is equally saturated with stereotypes of the West in Asia. How are cultural and gender identities connected to each other in the discourses of Orientalism and more importantly Occidentalism? For example, in the court scene, in response to the judge's question, Song says "The West thinks of itself as masculine--big guns, big industry, big money--so the East is femine--weak, delicate, poor, but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom--the feminine mystique" (Act 3 Scene 1, p. 83). Why do the characters including Song and Rene Gallimard speak of cultural identities in gender terms?