Puccini's Madama Butterfly which is highly debatable piece of musical drama, with the most sensitive issue of racial discrimination, the cultural diversity of east and west, is originally a short story that was written by John Luther Long. David Belasco's play based on John Luther Long's story influenced Puccini Greatly that urged him to poetize it to a grand opera, at La Scala on February 17, 1904. The story of Madama Butterfly revolves around a young Japanese tenderly beautiful girl namely Cio Cio San(Butterfly) brought up in Nagasaki, who works as a Geisha to earn money to support her family. This 15 year old yellow skinned damsel got married to white skinned American Lieutenant, Pinkerton who leaves her to marry an American lady, leaving his newly married wife, inseminated by his child. Lieutenant Pinkerton returns after 3 summers with his American wife Kate, to take away Pinkerton's child and gradually the story comes to an end with the suicide of Butterfly and repentance of Pinkerton. The opera gained both popularity and criticism for being misogyny and duped with racially prejudiced thoughts. The clash of East and West was also highly criticized here.
White skin American's used to look down upon Asian, specially those tribe with pale yellow skin, small eyes and small heighted suffered the rigorous taunts. According to dealers, Orientals were most vile, most cowardly and submissive of slaves. Asian woman were always considered to be "submissive and man pleasing ". In the year of 1875 Congress had passed an act to prevent the entry of this yellow skinned people to America. The women of Mongolian tribe were considered debased with low morals as they were economically vulnerable, they might be engaged in prostitution.
Though the protagonist of Madama Butterfly wasn't a prostitute, but she had choose an easy way of livelihood to become a geisha. Thus the tender 15 year old girl had also become a prey of an American Navy Lieutenant, and probably was also mocked and thought to be debased in the mind of that American man.
