Document Type
Honors Project
Publication Date
6-11-2026
Abstract
Since its premiere in 1904, Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly has perpetuated the trope of the submissive, fragile East Asian woman through its portrayal of Cio-Cio-San. First performed in 2024, Chinese opera director Mo Zhou recontextualizes the opera in post-World War II Nagasaki and reimagines Cio-Cio-San as a war bride with strength and resilience. This honors project uses Zhou’s contemporary reimagining of Madama Butterfly as a case study to explore the relationship between the musical work, the storyteller, and the audience reception. By purposefully disrupting the opera’s emotional continuity, Zhou strips away the safety that has historically enabled the Western consumption of exoticism. The Western audience—originally coming to the opera for its Orientalist fantasy—internalizes the new image of East Asian women that Zhou intentionally planted in her production. Tracing the opera’s compositional history, this honors project argues that, like all performances, Madama Butterfly is always a work-in-progress. Through her interpretation, Zhou gives agency back to the Japanese characters in the opera and recomposes the incomplete Madama Butterfly as her self-representation. With the reclaimed narrative agency, Zhou tells a story of a war bride and, ultimately, the story of herself emerging as a Chinese immigrant and an opera director.
Level of Honors
magna cum laude
Department
East Asian Studies
Advisor
Nancy Lin
Recommended Citation
Li, Qiaochuhan, "“Recomposing” Madama Butterfly: Opera as Global Self-Representation in Mo Zhou’s Contemporary Reimagining" (2026). Lawrence University Honors Projects. 230.
https://lux.lawrence.edu/luhp/230