How 'Passing' is described in 'M. Butterfly' (D. H. Hwang) and 'Laughing to Keep From Crying' (Langston Hughes)

A Comparison

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Ruhr-University of Bochum, language: English, abstract: 1.M. Butterfly - Introduction to the Text The play M.Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is a post-colonial story, based on a true story of a French diplomat, called Rene Gallimard in the play, who had a twenty-year affair with a Chinese actor and opera singer, namely Song Liling, not realizing that his partner was in fact a man passing as a woman. The diplomat actually became aware of the deception in 1986, when he was charged by the French government with disloyalty; it turned out that his companion had been an agent for the Chinese government, and had passed on sensitive political information that he had acquired from Gallimard.