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This article shows the expectations and reactions of the Chinese people on the new live action Mulan. Disney is trying to make it more historically accurate and culturally appropriate.

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It was absolutely a big day for Mulan fans and fans of Chinese actor Liu Yifei on 8 July because Disney finally dropped the teaser trailer for the live-action remake of the 1998 animated classic, with her playing the title role.

Directed by Niki Caro, the film, based on the narrative poem The Ballad of Mulan, follows the story of Mulan, who masquerades as a man to take her ailing father's place in the Imperial Army after the threat of the invading Huns requires a man from every family to sign up for compulsory military service.

In its first 24 hours, the first-look logged 175.1 million online views, topping all Disney live action productions save The Lion King, which roared to a record 224 million on its November debut, according to Deadline.com, a US online entertainment magazine.

Credit: Mtime

Of the 175 million global Mulan views, 52 million came from China, Mulan's home country. Shortly after viewers were blown away by Liu's marvellous martial skills shown in the action-packed 90-second clip, history-minded social media users began to cast doubt on some of the cultural details in the film, such as the characters' make-up and the setting.

A screenshot of the trailer, featuring Mulan dressed in splendid attire and wearing heavy make-up for a blind date, soon went viral as many viewers ranted that they were flabbergasted by the bold cosmetics.

In the screenshot, Liu's face is covered in geisha-like white foundation, with a dusting of light yellow hue on her forehead, a red floral pattern drawn between her eyebrows, and a heavy blush on her cheeks. Many net users even complained that seeing Liu in this make-up sent shivers down their spines.

Credit: Mtime

However, some netizens defended the film by posting ancient paintings from the period of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern dynasties (220-589), showing that make-up in the film is actually an effort to mimic that of the period.

During the Southern and Northern dynasties (420-581), the era in which Hua Mulan lived, women enjoyed using hua huang ("yellow flower") It was a type of make-up technique, in which women in China cut golden or yellow paper into floral designs and pasted it on their faces.

In The Ballad of Mulan, the line "I adorn my forehead with hua huang before the mirror" is about just this kind of make-up, said a user on Douban, China's most popular film review site.

Despite the solid evidence, some viewers insisted that art should evolve with the times, and films are no exception. They argued that make-up artists for a modern film should take into account contemporary aesthetic standards. Moreover, Disney's film is an entertainment production rather than a historical drama.

Credit: Mtime

The buildings in the film also sparked controversy as the tulou (earthen houses) featured in the trailer are typical rural dwellings in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian.

Mulan is a legendary figure whose home town cannot be precisely confirmed, but the consensus is that she was most likely from Central China, as she filled her father's shoes to resist the invasion of the nomadic Huns from Central Asia.

But others argue that maybe tulou were not exclusively built in Fujian in ancient China, and there is no need to be excessively critical about Disney's use of Chinese elements. It is good enough as long as audiences, on first seeing one, know it is based on ancient China and appreciate the beauty of Chinese architecture.

Critics also point out that debates on the cultural details of film productions should be celebrated, as they show people's love for their own culture and care about its integrity.
Yang Xiaoyu contributed to this story This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View more articles at chinadaily.com.cn

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This is what China thought of Disney's Mulan trailer

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It was absolutely a big day for Mulan fans and fans of Chinese actor Liu Yifei on 8 July because Disney finally dropped the teaser trailer for the live-action remake of the 1998 animated classic, with her playing the title role.

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This explains in depth why different aspects of Mulan were or were not culturally accurate and why. They explain what alterations were made or what cultures were mixed.

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Misrepresentation of Chinese culture in Disney’s Mulan

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The end... Thank you for watching Impact on values and moral standard Misrepresent the massage of the Ballad of Mulan Impact on education Most of the Disney audience are children, therefore it is important to teach them the accurate knowledge in the very beginning. Being accurate

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This quote asks multiple different people if they agree or disagree with Mulan being inaccurate or offensive.

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Some people loved it , some people hated it. Here's why for each person.

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Lilian Min

"Mulan" glosses over China's long and bloody history of imperialism and Han hegemony. It winks at gender parity service militarism. It is about as "authentically" Chinese (in its cultural details) as kung pao chicken. Yet how could I not love "Mulan" as a fantasy with humor, heart, and honor, about a lineage and with a heroine I (OK, and a whole generation of Chinese-American youth) could claim as my own?

Compared to the precarious fulcrum holding up my hyphenated identities, "Mulan" is a rock sugar rush, the cinematic antidote to learning what yellow fever was before you'd even started dating; or, constantly being called names (as in slurs), or literal names (as in other Asian kids'); or, the bitter generational rifts that leave scars, both visible and not. Its lasting nostalgic appeal for so many codifies its Chinese-American canon status, and yeah, long live "Mulan." May it one day not have to mean everything.
Lilian Min writes about the strange and the surprising all over the internet. She lives in California and tweets here.

Amanda Wong

"Mulan" was released when I was 14. At that time, I was definitely aware that this adaptation was primarily intended for a Western audience. Its reception in China in the late 90s was rather tepid, though eventually, it did become widely embraced by both Chinese nationals (if this is anything to go by) and Chinese-Americans.

At 14, I already knew the story of Mulan, and that the original theme was one strongly of filial piety rather than a young woman's search for her own personal identity - an incredibly common theme in modern Disney animation. Personally, I have no problems with adaptation: After all, the original theme of "Beauty and the Beast" was to prepare young girls for arranged marriages, and the theme of the original "Little Mermaid" was... gaining a Christian soul?
Amanda Wong lives in Vancouver and works in animation. Her projects include "DC Super Hero Girls," "My Little Pony: The Movie," and Netflix's "Carmen Sandiego." You can follow her on Twitter here.
And when evaluating the film on its own terms, I liked quite a lot of it! It has a lot of smart elements, like how Mulan defeats Shan Yu with traditionally feminine objects, and how, although she had become a competent fighter, she is triumphant because of her own ingenuity and cleverness - traits she consistently demonstrates throughout the entire movie. Mulan triumphs, not through feminine-coded demure behavior nor masculine-coded strength, but by being herself - and trusting herself.

Shannon Liao

Mulan was the only Disney princess who looked like me, so she resonated with me. I'd roleplay as Mulan while on my bed, using a blanket as a makeshift costume. My mom would watch a rerun of it alongside me and use the film to talk to me about respecting my elders and to teach me about the real Mulan, a historical figure from a famous ballad. It was at times like these I felt "Mulan" to be foreign, from an ancient culture I was disconnected from.
Shannon Liao is a Taiwanese-American who writes tech and culture stories for The Verge.
Later on, in high school, I met people on the internet from the Midwest who had never met an Asian person before and marveled when I said I was. One girl drew us images of how she imagined we looked like - she associated me with the shiny black hair of Mulan. That was also an alienating moment for me where I felt difference, but I was thankful for "Mulan," for filling a void where knowledge and experience were seriously lacking.

Vivian Lee
Vivian Lee is an editor at Little A. Her work has been published (or is forthcoming) in the Los Angeles Times, espnW, Eater, the Rumpus, TASTE, Epicurious, and World Policy Journal. She currently lives in New York.
Let's get down to business: "Mulan," at its core, is about a strong, independent woman who goes out there and gets what she wants with her courage, strength, and intelligence. However, while I distinctly remember dragging my mom to see this movie, I left the theater crestfallen. I was excited to see a big blockbuster movie about one of China's most beloved mythical heroes, a legend I knew like the back of my hand. But as I watched, I kept trying to find visual elements I could glom onto in a way that my white peers could with Disney princesses. Instead, I found a mishmash of different-era touch points from China and even references to Japan, an entirely different country. The first time I saw Mulan on screen, with a white-painted face and an outfit I could not remotely recognize, I knew what I was truly watching: a costume that could easily be consumed by white people.

Audrey Cleo

When the animated "Mulan" first came out, I was barely out of middle school but still not too cool for Disney movies. And while I was excited about the title character for all of the obvious reasons ("Wow, a cartoon princess who looked like me!"), Mulan was never really my Disney princess. My initial excitement was tempered with disappointment that the first Disney movie with an Asian lead would take place abroad (in ancient China) and be based on an old Chinese poem with which I was unfamiliar, despite attending Saturday language school.
Audrey Cleo is a multimedia journalist and on-air reporter based in Los Angeles. She loves surfing (badly), her dog Winston, and taking pictures of food. Follow her on Twitter at @audreycleo.
As an Asian-American, I have long struggled with - and been frustrated at - being perceived as foreign, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as "Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome." It has manifested itself throughout my life: through taunts of "ching chong" from casually racist neighborhood boys, questions about where I'm from and strangers assuming that my parents didn't speak English fluently. "Mulan" seemed to only reinforce that Asians - even when they are fictional, speaking perfect American English, and voiced by American actors - are still, endemically, "other." So while 20 years ago, I delighted in the idea of an Asian princess, I hope, one day, she can be American, too.

Kelly Gonsalves

Growing up, my whole family adored "Mulan." In my childhood home, there was a small box TV set in our kitchen, and we would put on our VHS copy of "Mulan" every morning (seriously!) to watch over breakfast. We were big fans.

As a kid, it never occurred to me that all my family's favorite Disney movies that we binged like that - "Mulan," "Aladdin," "The Lion King" - were all the ones featuring a non-white cast and story. (We had little interest in the Cinderellas, Little Mermaids, etc.) In our Asian-American immigrant household, I think there was an unspoken appreciation for these refreshingly familiar heroes.
Kelly Gonsalves is a sex and culture writer exploring how sexuality intersects with things like identity, gender, bodies and politics. Get more intimate with her work .
Today, I view "Mulan" with a grain of salt: The film views Chinese culture through an American lens that simultaneously exoticizes and criticizes its traditions. But simply seeing someone who looked like us on screen - someone brave and celebrated - undeniably brought us comfort. For all its failings, "Mulan" still gave me and my family a small but valuable taste of belonging.

Jess Kung

I'm a nonbinary Chinese-American, and Mulan is probably the closest I have to fictional representation. Her existence is a framework for mine. But the more I look at her (and my own reflection), the more I see Western ideas projected on a Chinese body.
Jess Kung (they/them) is a queer writer, producer, and student obsessed with using Disney's "Mulan" to decrypt East Asian-American gender.
In most Chinese tellings, Hua Mulan isn't individually motivated at all - she's just an example of filial piety. But Disney needed the story to fit a plot structure they knew was successful, with an "I want" song and training montage. To fulfill that, Mulan needed to struggle with her individual relationship to femininity, which is where her queerness emerges: She isn't just wearing a disguise, she's trying on a gender when one didn't fit.

Both Mulan and I float somewhere between "be loyal to your father and emperor" and "be true to your heart." I'm still not sure if I like her, but at least the soundtrack still slaps.

Kelsey Johnston

Being half-white and half-Filipino, I have always been both and nothing at once. Growing up, I felt unable to connect with either identity without my peers' approval. My Asian classmates thought I wasn't Asian "enough" - I was too pale and didn't speak Filipino - and therefore shouldn't be allowed to celebrate my Asian side.
Kelsey Johnston is a graphic designer working in Seattle, with a passion for comics, gaming, and horrible puns.

Despite this, I was elated to watch "Mulan." Her fight between honor and identity was a reflection of who I was and who I wanted to be. Watching the movie, I was proud to be half Asian! I cried when an usher gave me a Mushu pencil, which became an embodiment of my happiness and pride. I carried it everywhere, to remind me of how I felt that day.
Noël Duan is a New York- and San Francisco-based writer and founder of Argos & Artemis, a literary magazine that celebrates dogs and the humans they love.

I still deal with my biracial identity, fearing looking so ambiguous that I need a badge to prove I belong. That moment was when I needed Mulan the most. She reminded me that self-acceptance is a worthwhile experience.

Noël Duan

I was asked to audition for the role of Mulan in the early days of the casting process for the live-action film, even though I am not an actress. The audition, which involved me preparing a speech in Mandarin Chinese, helped me fulfill a childhood dream: to see someone like me on the big screen, and to know that young women like me finally "fit the part" of a leading role. Young women like me, born in China and raised in the United States, relate to Disney's "Mulan" because she is someone, according to the storyline, who struggles with honoring her family and maintaining filial piety while staying true to herself and creating her own destiny. I just came back from visiting my family in China, and what has resonated with me is how important the family unit is in Chinese culture. I don't see honoring my family as a burden; I see it as one of the most beautiful aspects of my roots, and I am hopeful that the live-action version of Disney's "Mulan," especially since it stars Chinese actress Liu Yifei, will respect the dual identities of young Chinese women around the world, rooted in both modernity and tradition.

Gina Mei is an editor at Shondaland.com. Get Shondaland directly in your inbox: Subscribe Today
Gina Mei

Like many Chinese-American kids, I clung to "Mulan" like a life raft when it first came out. While it wasn't exactly the representation I craved, there was enough in it for me to feel, if not seen, then at least acknowledged by Disney - and to me, that was enough. As a character, Mulan felt wholly different from the other Disney princesses; she was independent in a way that her predecessors were not, and heroic in a way that, at the time, Disney had typically reserved for its male protagonists.

Of course, it's worth noting that for much of the movie, this heroism plays out while Mulan is disguised as a man - and it's also worth noting that she isn't even really a Disney princess. The company just gave her the title so they could sell more merchandise: There's nothing in the movie that suggests she's royalty by birth or marriage.

And yet, despite the movie's problems, I'd be foolish to deny its value in the Chinese-American diaspora. Even if it was neither representative of my cultural experiences nor its culturally significant source material, "Mulan" was a big deal - and given the fact Asian-American majority character films are still few and far between, it remains a big deal and an outlier, even 20 years later.

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10 People Reflect on Disney's 'Mulan' in Honor of Its 20th Anniversary

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Lilian Min "Mulan" glosses over China's long and bloody history of imperialism and Han hegemony. It winks at gender parity service militarism. It is about as "authentically" Chinese (in its cultural details) as kung pao chicken.

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This quote goes over the soundtrack pros and cons. Also the influence of the music on the movie.

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This discusses the perspective of Mulan from a 27 year old trans, queer, non-binary man. They go over the lyrics from the song "Reflection" and how it relates to and impacts today's world.

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The first time I saw Disney's "Mulan," I was a 7-year-old, fifth-generation Asian American living in San Francisco, surrounded by people who looked like me. My Chinese American father had already told me the ancient legend of Hua Mulan, which Disney's film is (very) loosely based on, so it's safe to say I didn't feel the full effect of Disney's first Chinese "princess": When I saw "Mulan" in theaters, I didn't think, "Wow, finally!" I thought, "It's about time." Still, as the movie anchored itself firmly into the hearts of Asian Americans, I understood that "Mulan" and I were bound by blood. She was the VHS tape whose plastic spine I rarely cracked open, but that I always had as part of my collection. It was filial piety.

But nearly 20 years later, my perspective shifted: At a friend's birthday party in early 2017, I watched Disney's "Mulan" for the first time as a queer, nonbinary trans adult. In the darkened living room, I found myself holding back a sudden swell of tears as I listened to the lyrics of Mulan's iconic solo, "Reflection":
I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter Can it be I'm not meant to play this part? That if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart.
For the first time ever, I truly heard and understood the song's themes - of not living up to family expectations, of longing to be seen for who you truly are - and I related... hard. As an Asian American, yes, but also as a queer and trans person.

Disney's "Mulan" is, however unintentionally, a queer narrative that explores both gender identity and sexual orientation. It is not, as it is often simplistically described, a story about a disempowered woman who becomes empowered by masculinity. It is a story about a young person who doesn't fit the rigid constructs of womanhood or manhood, and who must instead carve her own path.

Mulan's gender journey over the course of the movie feels very familiar to me as a nonbinary trans person. First, in " Honor to Us All," the village women attempt to sculpt Mulan into an ideal woman - and more specifically, an ideal wife. It surprises some of my friends that this has always been my favorite scene in the movie, and that as a child, I longed to dress as Mulan in full bridal garb for Halloween. But this actually fits my experience navigating gender: I was a child who was excellent at embodying girlhood and wanted badly to become a beautiful, graceful, feminine woman... but it just wasn't in the cards for me. Mulan, too, fails the test of womanhood when her meeting with the Matchmaker goes horribly awry. As Mulan acknowledges this failure in "Reflection," she poses a question that most trans people know intimately: "When will my reflection show who I am inside?" And what exactly would that reflection be? If Mulan isn't a woman, then who (or what) is she?

When I was at Smith College and coming into my own gender revolution, I thought, "I'm pretty sure I'm not a cis woman, so maybe I'm a trans man." I started binding my chest and wearing Oxford collar shirts and sweater vests (it was New England, so I thought I looked cool). I kept a secret Tumblr blog under a male alter-ego named Levitt, for Joseph Gordon-Levitt - which is very embarrassing to admit now. At that birthday party, I saw this version of myself in Mulan, as she prepares to convince everyone she's a man - practicing her swagger, affecting her voice to a lower register, and scrambling to settle on a "boy name." In " I'll Make A Man Out of You," Mulan-as-Ping progressively works her way toward achieving manhood, which is defined by catching fish, carrying heavy things, and, of course, wielding a big stick. She later fails the test of manhood when she is revealed as a woman - or, rather, as someone who is not a man. Ultimately, Mulan is able to defeat the bad guys by playing on their misperceptions of her gender, and - in an unfortunately transmisogynistic scene - getting her friends to transgress gender, as well. Through a queer lens, the message of Disney's "Mulan" is something I learned as I came into my nonbinary identity: By rejecting society's limited ideals of "womanhood" and "manhood," you can become your most authentic self.

Then there's Li Shang, the handsome young general who falls for both Ping and Mulan, and who has been meme-ified as a bisexual icon. Between the women in the rice paddy blushing and giggling as Mulan-as-Ping passes by, and Ping and Shang's awkward flirtations, even the sexuality and romance in Disney's "Mulan" is queer.

Because of all this, and because I've come to read Disney's "Mulan" as a queer Asian American narrative, I feel apprehensive about the upcoming live action adaptation. With reports of major changes to the original - including a new villain, a new love interest, and no songs at all - it seems like the live action movie will be nothing less than a total departure from its animated original. This is a blow to anybody who loves the 1998 version, but especially to queer Asian Americans. Without Shang or the original soundtrack, there will likely be no bisexual love story or genderqueer introspection. Considering that 2015's "Cinderella" and 2017's "Beauty and the Beast," the only other live action Disney princess adaptations that have been released so far, both stay extremely faithful to the characters, songs, and even the shots of the animated originals, it feels particularly othering that Mulan - one of the only Disney "princesses" of color - is getting an extreme makeover.

I admit, I take this all a little personally: I submitted to audition for the role of Mulan in the live action film. And while I was not invited to audition, I was excited and hopeful that they would cast a tomboyish Asian American rising star who would bring honor to us all. When I found out the job had instead gone to Liu Yifei, a Chinese actress known for her "sweet and delicate image," and that the rest of the cast would be mostly Chinese nationals, as well, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. More and more, it seems like this live action adaptation will completely erase the queer Asian Americans who love the original so much.

As a kid, I watched Disney's "Mulan" and felt I didn't need it - but now, 20 years and several gender identities later, it is one of the precious few instances where I've seen myself represented. Queer Asian Americans are still waiting (I'm gonna say it) for our onscreen reflections to show who we are inside. But I'm hopeful: In the original film, when Mulan was in need of comfort, her father pointed out a closed bud on a flowering tree and said, "Look, this one is late. But I bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all." Hopefully, the wait is worth it.
Jes Tom (they/them) is an actor, writer, and weird queer comedy babe. For more opinions & narcissism, follow Jes on Twitter @jestom, and Instagram @jesthekid. Get Shondaland directly in your inbox: Subscribe Today

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The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's 'Mulan'

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The first time I saw Disney's "Mulan," I was a 7-year-old, fifth-generation Asian American living in San Francisco, surrounded by people who looked like me. My Chinese American father had already told me the ancient legend of Hua Mulan, which Disney's film is (very) loosely based on, so it's safe to say I didn't feel the full effect of Disney's first Chinese "princess": When I saw "Mulan" in theaters, I didn't think, "Wow, finally!"

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This quote discusses the things in the script that are told to Mulan during the movie that strongly shoves Mulan to one gender extreme or the other.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction

2 Short Summary of Disney's "Mulan"

3 The Representation of Gender
3.1 The Protagonist Fa Mulan
3.2 Treatment of Women
3.3 Depiction of Men
3.4 Meaning of Song Texts presented in Disney's "Mulan"

4 Gender as Performance

5 "Mulan's" Influence on Society

6 Conclusion: Disney's "Mulan" - A feminist movie?

7 Appendix

Bibliography
The Representation of Gender in Disney's "Mulan"
1 Introduction

"How can they tell if I am male or female?"[1] With this last line of "The Ballad of Mulan" the (anonymous) author raises the gender question already in the 6th century.

In this essay, I would like to analyse The Representation of Gender in Walt Disney's "Mulan"[2], using the structure of the movie to focus on The Protagonist Fa Mulan, the Treatment of Women and the Depiction of Men. Additionally, the inquiry concerning the Meaning of Song Texts in Disney's "Mulan" appears useful as these always play an important role in conveying movie themes. In order to establish a connection to the seminar on which this paper is based, I will illustrate how the movie is a good example for Judith Butler's theory of Gender as Performance. Last but not least, I would like to show the Influence of Disney's "Mulan" on Children and Society because fairy tales and movies "[...] do influence the manner in which children conceive the world and their places in it [...]"[3]. Drawing the "Conclusion", I will try a careful approach to find out if Disney's "Mulan" might even be considered as a feminist movie.

2 Short Summary of Disney's "Mulan"

Walt Disney's motion picture movie "Mulan" is loosely based on an ancient Chinese poem "The Ballad of Mulan" and set in 15th century China[4]. It deals with a brave girl named Fa Mulan who is in search of self-definition and in this process enters the Imperial army disguised as a man and manages to save the country.

Fa Mulan is an impulsive girl who is expected to be a disciplined daughter and a future caring wife. However, after a catastrophic visit to the local matchmaker, she is reproached for being a disgrace to her family and predicted that she will never find a husband. Later that day, messengers of the Emperor announce that the Huns have invaded China and that one man from each family is obliged to fight in the Imperial army. Mulan's elderly father obeys the command but it is obvious that he would not survive the battle. Therefore, Mulan steals her father's armament, dresses as a man and runs away to join the military in his place.

In confrontation with the enemy, Mulan manages through a tactical maneuver to win the battle. However, she has received an injury and her secret is revealed. As a consequence, Mulan is left behind while her company enters the city in order to celebrate their victory. As she realizes that a small group of Huns has survived and attacks the Emperor, Mulan succeeds with another peculiar strategy to rescue the sovereign. She is glorified as a heroine and offered employment under the imperial crown which she thankfully refuses. She prefers to return to her family to which she now has brought great honor.

3 The Representation of Gender

3.1 The Protagonist Fa Mulan

"The heroes are male because that has been the unconsidered choice, the norm, the American selfhood. Woman is the exception; man is the default setting [...]"[5]. Fa Mulan is such an exception. She is the heroine of Disney's motion picture film "Mulan". As noted in "Understanding Disney" "[...] the hero succeeds [...] because of what they do [...]" and "[...] heroines require nothing beyond what they are born with [...]"[6] . Considering this distinction, Mulan deviates even twice from "the norm" of fairy tales: not only is she the heroine of the story but also does she achieve this by her actions. The way towards being a heroine in a patriarchal society, however, was a major challenge for the protagonist. At the beginning of the movie, Fa Mulan is forced into the stereotypical feminine gender role but cannot fulfil it properly. Consequently she suffers from self-reproaches and the humiliation of being criticized in public.

The first appearance of the protagonist is the young girl sitting on her bed and writing characters of a 'perfect woman' on her forearm. For the meeting with the local matchmaker, she tries to memorize the following qualities: a woman has to be "quiet and demure, graceful, polite, delicate, refined, poised, punctual."[7] Speaking of punctuality, she heads towards the city in order to be transformed from the tomboyish girl to a "perfect porcelain doll"[8] . Though, seeing herself in the mirror does not seem to make her really happy. The dress and the make-up appear more like a costume to her, a façade. This styling does not represent who she really is and how she feels but her family and society expect appropriate behavior from her.

At the matchmaker's Mulan is told once again that in order to "[...] please [her] future in-laws, [she] must demonstrate a sense of dignity and refinement. [She] must also be poised and silent."[9] These characteristics are inculcated into the girls' minds and in the sense of Simone de Beauvoir, Mulan "[...] is not born, but, rather, becomes, a woman [...]"[10] by imposed behavior.

The encounter ends as a disaster and the matchmaker tells Mulan that she "[...] may look like a bride but [she] will never bring [her] family honour. Her outer appearance does not reflect who she is inside. When Mulan arrives home and takes off her make-up from just one side of her face, this picture visualizes her inner conflict. It shows her true self and the woman she is supposed to be. How she suffers from the previous experience and the inability to fulfil the social expectations is expressed in the song "Reflection" (see Chapter 3.4).

After having discussed the war issue with her father and being told that she needs to find her place in society, Mulan decides that she will join the army in her father's place. The depiction of her changes from woman to man clearly illustrates the elimination of stereotypical feminine features. She is cutting her long hair short, changes her dress for her father's military uniform and substitutes the prescription notice with her hairgrip.
[...]
[1] Lau, J.: Ode to Mulan ; http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/mulan.html; as of March 28, 2007

[2] In the following, I will refer to the Disney movie "Mulan" in inverted commas and to the protagonist Fa Mulan without special labeling

[3] [3] Zipes, Jack: Don't Bet on the Prince. Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North American and England ; Gower, 1986; p. xii

[4] cf. Wikipedia: Mulan ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan; as of March 20, 2007

[5] Reising, Russell: It's a Dirty World after All ; In: American Quarterly ; Vol. 49, No. 4; John Hopkins University Press; Baltimore, MD, December 1997; p. 857

[6] Wasko, Janet: Understanding Disney. The Manufacture of Fantasy ; Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd.; Malden, MA, USA, 2001; p. 133

[7] Disney's "Mulan". Special Edition; Directors: Bancroft, Tony/Cook, Barry; Walt Disney Productions, 2004; Chapter 3, Time 00:03:00

[8] ibid.; Chapter 4, Time 00:08:27

[9] ibid.; Chapter 4, Time 00:09:49

[10] In: Butler, Judith: Performative Acts and Gender Constitution. An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory ; In: Conboy, Katie/Medina, Nadia/Stanbury, Sarah: Writing on the Body. Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory ; Columbia University Press; New York, Chichester, West Sussex, 1997; p. 402

[11] Disney's "Mulan"; Chapter 4, Time 00:10:51

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GRIN - The Representation of Gender in Walt Disney's "Mulan"

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1 Introduction 2 Short Summary of Disney's "Mulan" 3 The Representation of Gender 3.1 The Protagonist Fa Mulan 3.2 Treatment of Women 3.3 Depiction of Men 3.4 Meaning of Song Texts presented in Disney's "Mulan" 4 Gender as Performance 5 "Mulan's" Influence on Society 6 Conclusion: Disney's "Mulan" - A feminist movie?

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This quote talks about how Mulan strongly enforces the idea of severe masculinity and femininity. That you have to be a "man". Strongly reinforced by the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" while working with the new recruits. And then with the songs "Honor to Us All" and "A Girl Worth Fighting For" both show you must be very feminine and pristine to be a successful woman "worth fighting for".

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"Popular culture has often been a kind of carnival, a place where ordinary people set aside the usual rules and hierarchies and, in fits of liberating bad taste, rebel against (or temporarily take place of) their kings and bosses and masters"
The premise seems clear: a girl transforms into a boy so she can pose as a soldier to protect her ailing father from having to serve in the army, and saves her country. Clearly, the normal gender hierarchy and rules are upended in this story, right? Wrong. Disney's Mulan, which takes place in early China, does not fight back against Chinese gender norms, despite appearing to do so on the surface; instead, it supports stereotypes and traditional roles. This movie is praised for its progressiveness and promotion of female empowerment, but nothing in society fundamentally changes through its duration. Mulan is only able to achieve success after posing as a man, receiving a man's training, and becoming accepted by other men. Furthermore, after she saves China, she returns to her prescribed female lifestyle. Mulan demonstrates how seemingly progressive aspects of pop culture are deceivingly good at reinforcing norms and hierarchies.

In order to examine how Mulan reinforces society's rules, we must first examine the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin would oppose the argument this essay will present; in Rabelais and His World, he describes pop culture as a "carnival" where people abandon the principles that usually guide their lives. He defines carnival as cultural events in which "the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions" (87) occurs. Further, he claims that during carnival "a second life, a second world of folk culture is thus constructed; it is to a certain extent a parody of the extracarnival life, a 'world inside out'" (88). Bakhtin claims that society's typical rules and structures flip during carnival, which allows people and groups to play different roles than they normally do. Since Bakhtin thinks of carnival as cultural, it follows that he believes pop culture embodies these principles.

If Bakhtin's argument were fully correct, we would find a complete shift in social norms and hierarchy in Mulan. Superficially, this does seem to be the movie's premise. Scholars such as Nandini Maity argue that she defies gender norms:

Although the film Mulan has a very strong undertone of a woman's obligation, the main character takes on traits that are stereotypically for men and breaks the traditional stereotypes. Mulan can do more than cook, clean and look beautiful. She takes a direct role in her attempts to enter the world of man as opposed to passively waiting to be saved.[1]

Yes, the idea that Mulan is able to pose as a man, become a skilled soldier, and lead other men in saving her country from the Huns does seem to be the ultimate feminist storyline, does it not? However, let us look at this movie more deeply and uncover how it reinforces the gender constraints it claims to destroy.

One of the hit musical numbers from Mulan is the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You". During this song, Mulan transforms from a helpless failure into a skilled solider. All of the army recruits receive a proper man's education under the guidance of General Li Shang, who is the epitome of masculinity - a strong, strategic, unemotional solider. This "man's education" entails learning archery, hand-to-hand combat, how to shoot rockets, etc. While Mulan has already physically transformed herself into a man, this song is the point where she begins to play a man's role.

This transformation shows how this song is counter to Bakhtin's argument that pop culture undermines existing social hierarchies. While Mulan develops male qualities and skills, nothing in society has actually changed - the women are still viewed as weak, and the men are viewed as dominant. In this song, General Shang even asks the weak soldiers "did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?"[2] If Bakhtin were correct and the norms were completely flipped, wouldn't the quote be "did they send me sons when I asked for daughters?" Mulan herself participates in a type of "subcarnival" in which she as an individual temporarily defies gender roles, but the roles themselves are not rethought or remade - she is only able to move between them because she is in disguise. Scholars have in fact noted, "Mulan's heroics occur mostly during the half of the movie that she serves as a male soldier, and only with indispensable help from [other] male characters."[3] That she must be masculinized to become strong shows that Bakhtin is incorrect - nothing about culture has been fundamentally changed, and if Mulan had not been trained to be a man, she would not have been able to save the emperor and the Chinese people.

Another song that refutes Bakhtin's thesis is the song "A Girl Worth Fighting For". In this song, the soldiers march off to war while singing about finding a girl who makes the war worth fighting in. The various male characters list off traits they are searching for in a girl:

I want her paler than the moon with eyes that shine like stars
My girl will marvel at my strength, adore my battle scars
I couldn't care less what she'll wear or what she looks like
It all depends on what she cooks like.[4]

When asked what she's looking for in a girl, the undercover Mulan asks "how 'bout a girl who's got a brain/Who always speaks her mind"[5] to which the responses are all "no". This shows that the respect Mulan has earned is artificial. If she were to reveal her true identity, the other soldiers would automatically begin to treat her as a subordinate. This is proven true when the other soldiers find out that Mulan is a woman after she saves them all from an ambush by the Huns. She is immediately shunned even without though her strength and intellect everyone would be dead. Thus, contrary to what Bahktin would say, nothing has even temporarily changed in how men and women are viewed; all that has changed is how Mulan is viewed because she is pretending to be something she is not.

Another important aspect of Mulan to consider is that after accomplishing unthinkable feats, the title character returns home to her domestic, feminine life. After she saves the emperor, he offers her a job but "she tells [him] that she must turn down his offer to serve China as a high-level council member, presumably to fulfill her traditional domestic role that has been portrayed as full of sexist prescriptions like beauty norms."[6] Additionally, after Mulan declines his offer, the emperor gives her a sword, which she immediately bestows on her father upon her return home. This demonstrates how everything that this "feminist icon" does throughout the movie is for a man. What about this is defying gender norms? This reminds the audience that she is nothing more than "a temporary impostor in the male world"[7] and nothing about women's role in society has changed even temporarily. Further, the movie concludes with her marrying a man and settling into the domestic life she was struggling to fit into in the first place. In fact, the entire journey she goes through actually eases her transition into domestic life - at the beginning of the movie, she is denied a match by the matchmaker because she is not an ideal wife with feminine qualities, but at the end, she is ready to settle into her wifely routine. This sends the message that if you let rebellious young girls have their fun for a bit, they will eventually settle into their preordained roles.

In thinking of how Mulan rejects Bahktin's ideas, one quote from the movie stuck with me. At the end, after Mulan saves China and leaves for home, the emperor turns to General Shang and says, "You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty."[8] This is central to what I have been arguing - the idea that Mulan's heroics are so far outside of the norm for females proves that nothing in society has fundamentally changed during this movie. Even though Mulan saved all of China, she is only held in comparison to other girls, not other skilled soldiers. In addition, her identity is reduced to her prospects as a romantic partner. Why must she end up with any man at the end of the movie? Why, after earning the respect of all of her fellow citizens, is the conclusion of this movie that she is an above-ideal potential spouse? This is not flipping society upside-down as Bahktin would expect; this is showing that no matter what Mulan has accomplished, the standards by which she will be evaluated are still restricted. No wonder she falls back into a life of domesticity - if this is how others think of her after she saves all of China, how could she ever truly have a chance to escape the norms that entrap her?

While I have shown that Mulan reinforces gender roles and norms within its universe, these also extend beyond the movie and into our world. Mulan, along with The Princess and the Frog and Moana, is considered to be one of the most female-empowering Disney movies; all three of these films focus on strong female figures.

However, Mulan and The Princess and the Frog brought in significantly lower incomes than other Disney princess movies of the time.[9] While Mulan made a relatively strong income in theaters - "$121 million gross domestic total, all-time domestic rank: 446, and much greater foreign box office receipts of $184 million"[10] - the movie made significantly lower revenue in merchandise than other Disney princess movies. Further, The Princess and the Frog did not see major box office success, bringing in $104 million. This is less revenue than Mulan even including inflation occurring because of the more than decade-long gap between these two movies' release dates.[11] The subsequent Disney movies that were released brought in significantly more - Tangled made $201 million domestically and Frozen made $401 million domestically.[12]

The implications of this are startlingly clear: even though a deeper analysis has revealed that Mulan is not actually a feminist movie, the idea that it appears to be so on the surface correlates to lower popularity. Having a seemingly strong female character makes people less interested in the film, and thus reinforces the norms that the movie seems to defy. Furthermore, we have already discovered that this movie does not actually flip these norms internally, but reinforces them. Thus, if the movie perpetrates gender standards and hierarchies internally and contributes to them externally, there is no way that Bakhtin's argument could possibly be correct. Until the day comes where a male character dresses up as a woman to defend his country, the gender roles that Mulan demonstrates will persist.

Bibliography

Barber, McKenzie. (2015: Nov 24). "Disney's Female Gender Roles: The Change of Modern Culture." Indiana State University. Retrieved from http://scholars.indstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10484/12132/Barber_McKenzie_2015_HT.pdf?se

Cook, Barry & Tony Bancroft. Mulan. (United States: Walt Disney Pictures, 1998).

Duncombe, Stephen. Cultural Resistance Reader. (London & New York: Verso Books, 2002). Chapter 3. Contains excerpts from Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. 1965.

Dundes, Lauren & Madeline Streiff. "Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney's Mulan and Princess and the Frog." (California: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, Dec 17, 2016).

English 117: Introduction to Cultural Theory. (Williamstown, MA: Williams College, Fall 2017).

Maity, Nandini. (2014, Oct). "Damsels in Distress: A Textual Analysis of Gender Roles in Disney Princess Films." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Retreived from https://people.ucsc.edu/~cjgoldma/E0191032831.pdf

Youngs, Gillian. (1999). "The Ghost of Snow White." International Feminist Journal of Politics. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/146167499359970

[1] Nandini Maity. (2014, Oct). "Damsels in Distress: A Textual Analysis of Gender Roles in Disney Princess Films." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Retreived from https://people.ucsc.edu/~cjgoldma/E0191032831.pdf. Page 30

[2] Barry Cook & Tony Bancroft. Mulan. (United States: Walt Disney Pictures, 1998).

[3] Dundes, Lauren Dundes & Madeline Streiff. "Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney's Mulan and Princess and the Frog." (California: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, Dec 17, 2016). Page 1.

[4] Barry Cook & Tony Bancroft. Mulan. (United States: Walt Disney Pictures, 1998).

[6] Dundes, Lauren Dundes & Madeline Streiff. "Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney's Mulan and Princess and the Frog." (California: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, Dec 17, 2016). Page 4.

[7] Gillian Youngs. (1999). "The Ghost of Snow White." International Feminist Journal of Politics. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/146167499359970. Page 312

[8] Barry Cook & Tony Bancroft. Mulan. (United States: Walt Disney Pictures, 1998).

[9] Dundes, Lauren Dundes & Madeline Streiff. "Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney's Mulan and Princess and the Frog." (California: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, Dec 17, 2016). Page 2.

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"I'll Make a Man Out of You": Carnival and Gender Roles in Disney's Mulan

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"Popular culture has often been a kind of carnival, a place where ordinary people set aside the usual rules and hierarchies and, in fits of liberating bad taste, rebel against (or temporarily take place of) their kings and bosses and masters" The premise seems clear: a girl transforms into a boy so she can pose as a soldier to protect her ailing father from having to serve in the army, and saves her country.

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Mulan Taught to Not Conform to Gender Roles

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Mulan Taught to Not Conform to Gender Roles

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"violence against women is directly connected to hyper-masculine socialization" Women have been confined to house wife roles because some men believe that a women's place is in the house and their role is solely to be a perfect house wife.

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Why Patriarchal Masculinity is Problematic...

We are taught from a very young age that there is a difference between masculinity and femininity. Baby boys are dressed in blue, and baby girls are dressed in pink. As the children continue to grow older we see that boys are told to like sports - such as baseball/football/soccer/basketball, but not dance/cheer - play with race cars, and not to like the color pink because it is "gay", etc. Boys are taught not to like girl things because that is not what being a man is about. When analyzing patriarchal masculinity on a deeper level, I see how the enforcement of the masculinity role can be detrimental to both men and women. When reading Joane Nagel's "Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations" the reader is informed that the meaning of manhood has been presented in a negative aspect in terms of "what men are not". Nagel talked about how the definition of masculinity has been defined as: "being a man is not being a woman, and no man would ever want to be a woman" and "being a (white) man is not being a 'Jew', or an 'Asian', or an 'Indian' or a 'black'". By enforcing this negative meaning of what it means to be a white masculine man, it can be detrimental to men who do not associate themselves as masculine and women. While women are expected to fulfill certain gender roles, it has been proven over time that women can do things that men do and succeed beyond their gender roles to demonstrate that women should not be confined to feminine responsibilities. Women can break gender roles. In this article I will take the overlapping ideas from Joane Nagel and Angela Davis to write about how Disney took a real life story and made it into an animated film where a woman defies one of the ultimate gender roles, and I will also talk about how patriarchal masculinity can create social consequences.

Breaking Gender Roles

Mulan is a Disney animated movie that takes place during the Han Dynasty where the Emperor asks one man from each family to join the Chinese army after they have been invaded by the Huns. The problem Mulan had about the Emperor's request was that their was only one man in her family - her elderly father who was sick; as a result, Mulan disguised herself as a man by chopping off her hair and taking her father's sword and armor in order to take his place in the army. I also want to point out that at the beginning of the movie, Mulan met with the village matchmaker to see who she would be a suitable wife for. The movie demonstrated how women were expected to prepared for marriage because their role was to be a wife who would maintain the house. The only honor that the women could bring to their families was by becoming a wife who was calm, obedient, working fast paced, and having a tiny waist. However, Mulan's tomboyish-klutz personality lead to the meeting with the matchmaker to be a disaster where the matchmaker ultimately tells Mulan she is a disgrace and that she will never bring honor to her family. Mulan experienced an internal conflict because she felt that she could no longer bring honor to her family after the matchmaker scolder her, but she did what no other woman had done before by joining the army while keeping her identity a secret. It is important to remember that this movie is based on a real folktale because people can argue that this is fiction, but it is not just a fictional story. In order to prove my point I want to tie in Nagel's article where she mentioned how the construction of manhood included that only "men go to war" to defend "their freedom, their honour, their homeland and their women". Patriarchal masculinity told women that they can not do any of that. Women were the ones who stayed at home because that was the place they were expected to defend. Mulan did the complete opposite of what was expected of her. Mulan broke gender roles because she proved that women can be tough and endure the pain and sacrifice men did when going to war. She challenged the idea about what makes a man. Mulan not only fought for her father, but she also fought for herself because she wanted to proved that she was more than just a housewife. Mulan wanted to be a warrior who fought for her homeland, her family, and herself. In the end, Mulan and the Chinese army defeated the Huns and she was told by the Emperor that she has brought the greatest honor to her family. The movie proves that men are not the only ones capable of war and that women (and men) should not conform to gender roles because each individual is capable of doing things that are both "masculine" and "feminine".

Consequences of Patriarchal Masculinity - Broken Into 2 Parts

In the previous section I wrote about how Mulan was being prepped as a bride for a potential suitor, and that concept goes to show how women were expected to fulfill certain gender roles. Being a housewife was one of those expectations. In this next section I want to talk about two specific problems that have been created by patriarchal masculinity: (1) women have been confined to housewife roles because some men believe that a woman's place is in the house, and (2) the harsh realities gay men face because they are not perceived as masculine. Patriarchal masculinity restricts women from being anything other than feminine in the sense that women will always be below men;on the other hand, men who do not relate to this cruel gender role are attacked (both physically and mentally) by the masculine men. The separation between masculinity and femininity has created gender roles for both men and women, and one of the roles I want to talk about that women have been expected to live up to is being a housewife. In "Women, Race and Class: The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective", Angela Davis talked about what it means to be a housewife and how this role can viewed as "domestic slavery".

In Angela Davis' article "Women, Race and Class: The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective" she talked about what it means to be a housewife and how this role can viewed as "domestic slavery". Davis addressed the endless chores that women have to do which includes cooking, cleaning, washing, doing laundry, and taking care of the children. While Davis does not specifically talk about why being a housewife is a consequence, I found her idea to overlap with Nagel's idea because Nagel talked about how femininity differed from masculinity because women are given traditional roles of "supporting their husbands" and "raising their children" which ultimately are ideals that housewives must uphold. In addition, Nagel's and Davis' ideas overlap when Davis mentioned how housewives' work is "virtually invisible: 'no one notices it until it isn't done'". I came across this online article and it talked about television shows from the 1950s, such as I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best, and how those shows demonstrated strict gender roles of the "rule-making middle-class father" and the "doting housewife who was thrilled to wake up every single day and clean the house and cook all of the meals". Shows that enforced strict gender roles influenced boys because they saw how "real men" were supposed to act, and the shows also depicted women as the subordinate. The differences between men and women in these shows captured the culture of the 1950's, and part of this culture never taught men/boys that being feminine was acceptable. The men made the rules, and the women had to follow those rules because if they disobeyed their would be consequences. The enforcement of these gender roles is problematic for women because it can lead to violence because "violence against women is directly connected to hyper-masculine socialization". Men who feel they are not living up to the role of masculinity can lead them to find an escape through the pleasures created by alcohol; as a result, alcoholic husbands have taken out their aggression on their wives because it allows them to feel dominant - and after all, being dominant is a characteristic of patriarchal masculinity.

Women are not the only ones who experience the consequences of patriarchal masculinity, so does the LGBT community members such as gay men/boys. For example, a 13 year-old gay teen from Australia named Tyrone Unsworth committed suicide after enduring many years of bullying. One of Unsworth's friends, Gypsie Kennard, talked about how Tyrone mentioned to her how the bullies at school kept telling Tyler to go kill himself. Gypsie also mentioned how Tyrone "loved girly things, he's chosen dresses for [Gypsie] and his mum to wear, he's asked to use make-up". I find the previous statement of things Tyrone enjoyed to do to be evidence of what patriarchal masculinity is not. Masculinity has cynically defined that "being a man is not acting 'feminine' and/or not being a homosexual". The enforcement of masculine gender roles amongst men is detrimental to the gay community because straight (masculine) men see gays as targets who do not live up to what it means to be a man. Patriarchal masculinity is a threat to the LBGT community because Tyler is not the only one who has committed suicide, there are many others who have committed suicide or are bullied, killed, endure depression, and face many other physical and mental problems.

Stopping Gender Roles

The idea of masculinity needs to be redefined because it teaches women that they should limited in what they do and shows non-masculine men that they are weak. Women can be strong and providing for their families, and men are allowed to be emotional and not feel ashamed for it. On another note, while patriarchal masculinity has been enforced for many years, this has not stopped women from breaking free of what is expected of them. Women have proven to be more than just housewives because there are many women today who are successful in the medical field, as lawyers, educators, engineers, politicians and war veterans. The most recent gender role that I saw broken was when Hillary Clinton was nominated as the Democratic nominee in the recent election. Even though Clinton sadly lost, she broke one of the highest glass ceilings in history as she was the first woman nominee for President of the United States - a position that has only been held by men. Clinton is one of the many examples of how women are capable of achieving more than what is little expected of them by the ideology of patriarchal masculinity.

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Mulan is One of The Many Women That Has Proven That Women Should Not Conform to Gender Roles

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Why Patriarchal Masculinity is Problematic... We are taught from a very young age that there is a difference between masculinity and femininity. Baby boys are dressed in blue, and baby girls are dressed in pink.

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This citation discusses the portrayal of Mulan only being comfortable when she has the utmost control over her gender. She is very awkward when she is forced to be this perfect porcelain doll and when she is forced to be a rough hardcore man. They show her as most comfortable when not forced to either extreme.

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Everyone has a favourite Disney Princess. As a child, Mulan was mine. Mulan is a favourite of many, with good reason. Before her the princesses who graced our screen at best reacted to the narrative as it happened around them. At worst they were completely passive as other characters, mainly their princes solved the conflict. Then came along and our heroine was the one pushing the narrative forward. She chooses to steal her father's armour and sword to protect him. She sets out to save her father and ends up saving all of China. But does so much more than tell a story of a girl who saved China. Mulan contests gender conventions, pushing against having to exist at the extreme ends of the gender spectrum.

Even by modern standards, Mulan challenges gender roles, let alone in 1998 when it premiered. Mulan has to disguise herself as a man to take her father's place as a soldier. Just by doing this she's committed a crime punishable by death. At the same time, Mulan's internal conflict comes from lacking all the graces valued in women. Quiet, demure, graceful, delicate, refined, poised, punctual. All words said by Mulan herself to describe an ideal woman, according to her society. All words she's shown to be the opposite of.

Feminine and Masculine portrayals of gender are contrasted time and time again in the movie, particularly early on. The first song spells out the gender expectations of Mulan's society. Men serve by 'bearing arms' and women by 'bearing sons'.

" A girl can bring her family
Great honor in one way
By striking a good match, "

Mulan then spends the rest of the movie turning this on its head. Even before the word of the war reaches Mulan's village, Mulan's core motivation is to bring honour to her family. If that means putting on a dress and makeup she's not completely comfortable with that's what she'll do. When she takes her father's place as a soldier, she sees a new opportunity to bring her family honour in a way she never could as a 'daughter'.

It's notable that whether her gender performance has to be extremely feminine or extremely masculine it's in the moments of those extremes she's shown to be the most uncomfortable. Dressed up as either the 'perfect porcelain doll' or as the gruff soldier with the manly urge to kill something, these are when she's most awkward. Her personality is most natural when allowed to temper her gender performance. Be it in her family's garden when she can jump on the railings of a small bridge in her dress, or in the army after she's found friendships and her deception really only extends to changing her voice, not her personality.

The movie gives a message about the importance of finding a balance between the feminine and masculine. The army is introduced to Mulan and audience through a very masculine act, a fistfight breaking out because Mushu threw an insult at Yao. Yet, as much as this violence is associated with masculinity in media in general, Mulan denounces it as inappropriate. Shang, the paradigm set by the movie for masculinity, berates the troops for their actions and punishes them accordingly. Here the hyper-aggressive and violent isn't held up on a pedestal, its treated as counterproductive and harmful.

'I'll Make a Man Out of You' is not just the best song of the movie. It's the roadmap giving to the characters for becoming men. Its focus is on strength, but the song also highlights tranquillity and balance as traits the soldiers need to obtain. Aspects that aren't far off from quiet, graceful and poised, all of which were applied to the women earlier. Mulan and the other soldier have to learn these traits before they are deemed 'men'.

Even the Huns aren't presented as just violent brutes. There is no doubt they are the strongest force in the movie, demolishing a highly trained army off-screen. While they are the closest to that hyper-masculine ideal the movie pushes against, they are given greater depth than that. They're shown to be observant and clever enough to deduce the Imperial army's location with a few clues and with small numbers they formulated and executed a plan to capture the Emperor.

Shun Yu is one of the few characters in the movie to not underestimate Mulan because she's a woman. When she reveals herself to him, he sees the soldier from the mountain that cost him his army and determines her the bigger threat over Shang who he's already mostly defeated. The moments the Huns achieve their greatest levels of success are when they use cunning and tactics in conjunction with their strength; the aforementioned victory over the army and the capture of the Emperor.

But both times Mulan defeats them is when they charge in with overwhelming force that ultimately fails to her resourcefulness and intelligence. In the mountain pass, the entire Hun army rides in without abandon to sweep a much smaller force that has no chance of winning a direct confrontation. Mulan defeats them by turning their reckless overconfidence against them and causing an avalanche.

She wipes out most of the Hun army by disregarding Shang's order, ignoring the biggest threat, Shan Yu and seeing the bigger opportunity. She disregards the obedience that had been taught to her both as a woman and a soldier to claim a huge victory.

Later on, she takes victory again by fully embracing the fact women are as good as invisible, disguising Yao, Ling and Chien Po as women to get close to the Huns without suspicion. She defeats Shan Yu in his moment of overconfidence, thinking she has no more options.

Mulan never outrightly rejects femininity, only the aspects of it that make her uncomfortable. She takes care of her father and the household. She's shown wearing dresses without qualms. Not only that, but she's shown to be comfortable enough in them to do highly physical acts. She defeats Shan Yu wearing a dress, armed with only a fan. Mulan disarms Shan Yu using a fan. A fan, which throughout the movie was a symbol of femininity. In the same way, Mulan never fully embraces hyper-masculine ideals. Mulan doesn't become a violent killing machine in the army. She doesn't even begin to succeed in those masculine coded trails until she applies her ingenuity to the situation. She takes those traits as her own, using them on her own terms.

Mulan, both the character and the movie, find strength in the feminine, the masculine and balance in-between.

Images courtesy of Disney.

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The Balance of Gender in Mulan - The Fandomentals

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Everyone has a favourite Disney Princess. As a child, Mulan was mine. Mulan is a favourite of many, with good reason. Before her the princesses who graced our screen at best reacted to the narrative as it happened around them. At worst they were completely passive as other characters, mainly their princes solved the conflict.

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This article discusses the "bad-ass paradigm". This is how girls used to always to be the damsel in distress but now they are being portrayed as the hero. Mulan challenges the norms of being a house wife to go into battle for her father while pretending to be a man, knowing she is risking her life. And then at the end of the film uses femininity to finally win the last battle.

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How Disney’s “Mulan” Brazenly Challenges Gender and Sexuality | Features | Roger Ebert

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An essay on the subversive tendencies of Disney’s “Mulan.”

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In Mulan they show specific cultural traditions and norms. These views on culture and how things should be done greatly impact Mulans decisions and actions. Even though the culture is slightly westernized in the film, it still shows the impact in her life.

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Mulan's origins most likely arose as a merger between the Tuoba (Toba) clan of the Xianbei culture and the Han Chinese. The Tuoba, whom originated from the far northeast, managed to conquer and rule northern China during the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534) despite being vastly outnumbered.

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This source discusses the accurate parts of Chinese culture in Mulan. The correct Chinese values it covers, as well as the sentimental values. It shows the traditional side of China being represented in the movie and how it impacts her actions.

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June 18 marks the 14th anniversary of the release date of Disney's Mulan - and this was actually my favorite classic Disney movie. Although Mulan has been criticized for being an inauthentic depiction of Chinese culture and even of feminism, she did make a popular address to these subjects, albeit for the intended American audience. It's a good story, and it combines (or clashes) values of American and Chinese culture. You could argue that the story is a little mixed-up, or you could argue that the mix of Eastern and Western values makes an interesting interplay as produced by a country that shares American and Asian heritage. (This is even representative in the fact that Mulan also had an impressive cast of Asian-American actors, including Pat Morita, George Takei, B.D. Wong, Ming-Na Wen, and others.)

And so I admit that I'm biased in favor of Mulan, even after 14 years, and with a little more awareness of its criticisms. Still, I can't change the fact that I was touched by the sympathetic story about a girl desperate to prove herself, and that I was inspired by the animation and, yes, the Chinese setting. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that, as someone put it, Mulan is "an American story in a Chinese context".

American Humor:

If nothing else, you can tell it's an American movie just by the humor. Eddie Murphy does a wonderful job as Mushu - he's very funny - but he's very funny in an African American way, with jokes that Americans would get. Mushu is about as Chinese as Aladdin's Genie is Arab - which is to say not at all. I'm sure his jokes were probably difficult for translators and for foreign audiences, especially Chinese ones. But Mushu wasn't really intended to be a Chinese character other than in the simple fact that he's a little dragon.

Although humor is universal in a few ways, it's actually often very cultural specific, especially if it relies on cultural stereotypes and pop cultural references. And in Mulan there are quite a few "inside jokes" for Americans. When the Emperor's assistant Chi Fu asks for "order" one character shouts "Moo Goo Gai Pan!", a Chinese-American restaurant dish (Incidentally, a Chinese restaurant owner informed me that Moo Goo Gai Pan is the only common dish that translates literally - "Mushrooms and Chicken Slices"). In the movie there are only a few subtle jokes for Chinese speakers - the names of certain characters are puns. Chi Fu apparently means "to bully."

And, for instance, how many non-Americans would catch this reference? Perhaps not even all Americans. But the subtle twist is part of what makes it funny and enjoyable.

Mulan did not perform that well in China at all, and for several reasons. First of all, the Chinese government deliberately discouraged it from being popularly received, preferring not to market so many foreign movies, among other diplomatic reasons (many people watched pirated versions anyway). In China, Mulan was released in February, after the Chinese New Year, after their holiday movie season. Second of all, even besides the humor, Mulan frankly doesn't translate very well as a Chinese story. Mulan had been criticized by Chinese critics as "too individualistic" (Langfitt).

What Americans might call the value of personal achievement, self-actualization, Chinese might see as "self-aggrandizing". Chinese also value cultivating one's self through discipline, hard work, and ingenuity, but also in keeping with modesty. Mulan admits to proving herself more than helping her family. Inasmuch as Mulan claims to be working for her family, to serve China through the military, she really does things in a kind of Western individualist spirit. She's trying to "fit in" with the other soldiers, but she goes about it in her own way, whether surpassing them or bypassing them.

And, only in a Western movie is it heartwarming to see a great crowd bowing before you for your humble service.

Chinese Values:

I was impressed, however, with the Eastern notes of filial piety, family honor, and self-discipline. Mulan's family lives with the maternal grandmother, as is traditional and somewhat typical even today for Chinese families in the United States. Furthermore, Mulan is acting for the sake of her family in a more Eastern way, and I think there is a lesson in that for a Western audience. She considers her military service to be for the sake of her father, and that her military achievements are a credit to her family.

As for Mulan's father praying to the ancestors, and their ghostly roles in the movie, I'm not sure prayer is done so literally (ancestors are not "worshipped", but rather honored), but ancestor veneration is also a Chinese value, and one's ancestors may have an influence on your own course of life. In China and Japan it really is not uncommon to have a family shrine dedicated to one's ancestors.

It is true that in Eastern culture, your honor and your shame are reflected upon one's group, whether it's your family, your co-workers, or whoever is considered your team. In Western culture, pride and shame weighs mostly on the individual. As a simple example, in individualist Western thinking, someone losing a contest makes the loser look bad. In collectivist Eastern thinking, someone losing a contest makes his coach look bad. Of course, a Western loser will also feel guilty about his coach and an Eastern loser will also feel bad about himself, but there is a distinctly Eastern sense of collective responsibility. "Losing face" is an expression that arrived in English from a direct translation of Chinese (and Japanese). And, in these cultures, your failure causes your family/supervisor/co-worker/colleague to also lose face.

Personally, I was struck by the story of a girl trying to prove herself, and to find identity, even if she goes about it in her own way. I do appreciate the feminist themes (which seem to be more closely tied to the feminist movements of the United States - I get the impression that the Chinese legend wasn't intended so much to make a case for female empowerment, but I could be mistaken.), but to me the story is more about wrestling with one's own identity. Mulan doesn't explicitly challenge the patriarchal system because it wasn't her intention. In the beginning of the movie she is trying to present herself as the feminine ideal, and at the end of the movie she forsakes political power and opts to quietly go home. I think Mulan is an empowering female character because she works to prove her ability regardless of how many times she is suppressed. But more importantly, to me Mulan represents the struggle to find our own identity. And now I think that Mulan is also an attempt to reconcile Western and Eastern identities.

In college, when I was studying Japanese, and later failing Japanese, I again thought of Mulan, trying to perform as something beautiful when I was really just pretending. I learned that trying to relate to another culture sometimes makes one feel very self-conscious, and involves its own questions with identity.

Even though Mulan has its contradictions between Chinese and American values, I think it speaks to what Americans do know and do not know of Chinese culture. For Mulan, it seems the makers genuinely wanted to respect Chinese ideals of filial piety, ancestor veneration, honor and shame, and to give credit to Chinese art. Even so, it was a product of Western perspectives. Americans still sometimes present Chinese culture in odd ways, but I think the story of Mulan has its own integrity, and it was made with good intentions. Perhaps Mulan doesn't reach out to China very well, but the film continues to offer introspection into the presence and awareness of China in America.

By the way, the sequel, unfortunately, was made for a much younger and smaller audience, and had much less to do with China.

Sources:

Bancroft, Tony, dir. Mulan. Dir. Barry Cook, Writ. Rita Hsiao, Robert D. San Souci., Perf. Ming-Na Wen, B.D. Wong, Pat Morita, George Takei, and Eddie Murphy. Buena Vista, 1998. Film.

Langfitt, Frank. "Disney Magic 'Fails' Mulan in China." Baltimore Sun [Baltimore] 03/05/1999, n. pag. Web. 16 Jun. 2012.

Morgan, Diane. The Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Religion. 1st. New York: Renaissance Books, 2001. Print.

Price, Kathie. "Disney's "Mulan" - A China Parent's Viewpoint." FWCC. Families with Children from China, 06/25/98. Web. 16 Jun 2012.

Gengcheng, Zhao. "Mulan: Powerful and Powerless." US-China Education Trust. n. page. Web. 16 Jun. 2012.

..and Wikipedia.

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Disney's Mulan: Reflection, after 14 years

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June 18 marks the 14th anniversary of the release date of Disney's Mulan - and this was actually my favorite classic Disney movie. Although Mulan has been criticized for being an inauthentic depiction of Chinese culture and even of feminism, she did make a popular address to these subjects, albeit for the intended American audience.

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This source shows how cultures other than western felt about the movie. They liked the movie for being a movie but they didn't enjoy the portrayal of China. They say it was mixed with Japanese and that really bothered them because it is very different.

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This question originally appeared on Quora.

Answer by Faye Wang, I make and play games

From what I can remember, the movie was received horribly. People criticized how the movies confused China with Japan (which is a big deal for us), and how they confused Chinese tradition of family clan with Native American (mostly because use of the word "ancestors" in the movie). And people aren't happy about how the emperor bows to Mulan at the end of the movie, which is ridiculous in Chinese culture, and everyone hated Mushu the dragon the same way people hated Jar Jar Binks a year later.

They didn't like the love interest between General Lee and Mulan (which was never in the original Mulan legend). They didn't like the jokes, the songs ... how Shan Yu attacked the capital city with a small team...

Overall, we just didn't like it.

But I think it's not so much that the movie is bad; I personally like the movie a lot. It's more about culture differences. After all, Mulan wasn't even trying to preserve Chinese culture. It is a straight out American movie decorated with Chinese accessories to make it interesting and exotic. Kung Fu Panda did a much better job.

On top of that, I think deep down Chinese feel upset because we didn't do it. Mulan is our legend, and we didn't do anything about it that's nearly as cool and beautiful. It's like you have this hidden treasure somewhere, and you're too lazy to use it, while someone else steals it and makes good use of it. A lot of people asked, after watching Mulan, why can't we do stuff like this? We have so many legends, stories, and what do we have for animation and cartoon?
More questions on Disney:

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How Is Disney's Mulan Perceived in China?

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This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Faye Wang, I make and play games From what I can remember, the movie was received horribly. People criticized how the movies confused China with Japan (which is a big deal for us), and how they confused Chinese tradition of family clan with Native American (mostly because use of the word "ancestors" in the movie).

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I can use this source to show the fact that Mulan doesn't depict ancient china's culture as it should have. Mulan acts as if she has a western view on the situations, which makes the movie good but doesn't accurately show the history in that time. It tries to show the culture in certain scenes, but if definitely aimed towards a western audience.