M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

Author:David Henry Hwang
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

scene 6

Beijing. 1963.

Party noises over the house speakers. Renee enters, wearing a revealing gown.

GALLIMARD: 1963. A party at the Austrian embassy. None of us could remember the Austrian ambassador’s name, which seemed somehow appropriate. (To Renee) So, I tell the Americans, Diem must go. The U.S. wants to be respected by the Vietnamese, and yet they’re propping up this nobody seminarian as her president. A man whose claim to fame is his sister-in-law imposing fanatic “moral order” campaigns? Oriental women—when they’re good, they’re very good, but when they’re bad, they’re Christians..

RENEE: Yeah.

GALLIMARD: And what do you do?

RENEE: I’m a student. My father exports a lot of useless stuff to the Third World.

GALLIMARD: How useless?

RENEE: You know. Squirt guns, confectioner’s sugar, hula hoops ...

GALLIMARD: I’m sure they appreciate the sugar.

RENEE: I’m here for two years to study Chinese.

GALLIMARD: Two years?

RENEE: That’s what everybody says.

GALLIMARD: When did you arrive?

RENEE: Three weeks ago.

GALLIMARD: And?

RENEE: I like it. It’s primitive, but ... well, this is the place to learn Chinese, so here I am.

GALLIMARD: Why Chinese?

RENEE: I think it’ll be important someday.

GALLIMARD: You do?

RENEE: Don’t ask me when, but ... that’s what I think.

GALLIMARD: Well, I agree with you. One hundred percent. That’s very farsighted.

RENEE: Yeah. Well of course, my father thinks I’m a complete weirdo.

GALLIMARD: He’ll thank you someday.

RENEE: Like when the Chinese start buying hula hoops?

GALLIMARD: There’re a billion bellies out there.

RENEE: And if they end up taking over the world—well, then I’ll be lucky to know Chinese too, right?

Pause.

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