Song is male and female, Eastern and Western, fantasy and reality entirely within one individual. The binary constructs Gallimard bases his world from do not allow for this merging. Gallimard's actions are diametrically opposite of Song's. He refuses to break free from the world of binaries and it eventually contributes to his destruction. Gallimard believes he is the typical modern Western male living in reality not fantasy.
Westerners consider power and domination a convenient part of their modern reality infused society.
Gallimard believes he is a Western man allied with reality, modernity, and capitalism. His interactions with other Westerners present a man who consciously believes he is living in the Western reality world. Subconsciously though Gallimard lives in an Eastern fantasy world as the audience knows. As the play develops Gallimard's understanding of what encompasses reality blend with what encompasses fantasy until fantasy is reality for Gallimard. Gallimard conveys to his audience that in order to understand his story one must be familiar with the Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly.