The Song Liling
Song Liling’s character is quite a complex one being that throughout the play her identity was concealed. Meaning that Liling, (otherwise known as Butterfly) was not who she said she was. In reality she is actually a he sent by the Chinese communist government to take up the role as a Chinese opera star in hopes of wooing Gallimard in order to receive diplomatic secrets. However, there is much more than that, especially because the story expands itself over a twenty year time period. The play is set after the first Indochina War (or the Opium War) and in the late portions of the second Indochina War (or the Vietnam War). In the interim, heavily set stereotypes circulated around the world heavily influencing the way people viewed the people