Mulan's Mixed Messages

The chapter I read about was “Mulan’s Mixed Messages” by Chyng-Feng Sun.  In the chapter, Sun compares and contrasts the Disney version of Mulan to the traditional Chinese legend it was based on.  Sun’s major claim is to point out how Disney has taken a traditional Chinese story and turned it into an oppressive Chinese society with no liberation for women.

The first comparison that was made by Sun was the beginning of each story is dramatically different, wherein Disney Mulan is pressured to marry and goes to see the matchmaker so that she can bring ‘honor to her family tree.’ After the interview, Mulan is shamed for her behaviour and criticized for “being too skinny and speaking her mind too much,” (Sun 107).  In the traditional Chinese legend, Mulan is portrayed as a “productive woman who has her own place and job within her home and society,” (Sun 106). The Disney depiction is sending the message that a “woman’s only value is to get married and bear sons, as well as all Chinese women and men, seem to embrace this value system,” (Sun 107). These depictions from Disney do not align or accurately portray Chinese culture or the original story.  

Another portrayal of China’s oppressiveness in the movie is when Mulan is the one that saves Captain Shang’s life as well as saving her troop from the Hun’s with her quick thinking, but when it is discovered in the next scene that she is a woman, her life is threatened per Chinese ‘law’.  Basically, Disney is saying that one second Mulan is a hero, the next she is worthless because of her gender. This depiction of the value of women in Chinese culture and the traditional legend of Mulan completely contradicts what is supposed to be.

The biggest “Oh wow!” moment for me while reading this article was when Sun talks about how Disney knows how to make a ‘happy ending’ that meets the characters’ wishes, but in Mulan this does not happen for her.  Mulan initially starts with “defying a sexist society but ends up settling down with it,” (Sun 109). This really opened my eyes because Mulan never went out to look for a husband, she just wanted to fight for her father because she knew he could not survive the war in his condition.  While she does fight this battle and brings honour to her family through her trials, her mother and grandmother are still more excited by the handsome man that ends up showing up from her going to war. Where Disney is blatantly saying that “If going to war brings a man, it must be worthwhile joining,” (Sun 109).  As I have said multiple times, I am a huge Disney fan have thought as Mulan as one of my favourite movies because I found it funny. However, I don’t know if I will watch it through the same eyes after reading this article and knowing how much Disney had altered it from the original story.