"Foreign Mulan" and what she means for Asians in America

     Since the time of the original ballad, Mulan’s story has been retold countless times, with three notable renditions being produced in the United States. Maxine Hong Kingston’s 1975 novel The Woman Warrior is widely credited as being the first adaptation of Mulan for an American audience. Possibly spurred by the popularity of Kingston’s book, Disney picked up the story of Mulan for the first time with its 1998 animated film, Mulan (1998). In the 21st century, Disney released another version of the tale of Mulan, following their own trend of re-producing their animated classics as live-action films to create Mulan (2020). Despite receiving varying degrees of praise from American audiences, however, each American version of Mulan has faced criticism from Chinese audiences. Here, we will analyze which parts of the American Mulan stories were most unsatisfactory to Chinese audiences. 

     Although supernatural elements are certainly not uncommon in Chinese folktales, those present in the Mulan retellings have stirred up some controversy. The issues most Chinese viewers have with the supernatural aspects of Mulan (2020) and Mulan (1998) are that they are not culturally accurate. The fantasy parts included in each movie were very different from the fantasy that is present in Chinese folklore and much more akin to American storytelling (Langfitt, 1999).      Arguably the biggest faux pas committed during any American renditions of the legend of Mulan comes through the newest 2020 Disney film. Throughout the movie, qi is constantly referred to. Specifically, it is asserted that Mulan has “strong qi,” which gives her essentially super-human abilities, and that women who have “strong qi,” are often thought of as “witches,” and rejected from society. This presents numerous issues of misrepresentation to Chinese viewers. Firstly, qi is something that everyone has (Acupunct

     The villains in Mulan (1998) are the Huns, who were a group of nomadic people who existed around the time period of the original story of Mulan, but would likely not have been attacking the Northern Wei Dynasty during the time of The Ballad of Mulan or Tang Dynasty during the setting of Mulan (1998), making them highly improbable if not impossible villains for the time period we are most led towards believing Mulan (1998) took place.      In addition to the confusion surrounding the identity of both Mulan and the villains, the 1998 film’s animation style actually crosses the line from misinformation to rather blatant stereotyping. The appearance of the Huns, with their darker skin, small yellow eyes, and resemblance to the typical Western depictions of Asian barbarians could reasonably offend those sharing ethnic backgrounds to any of the ethnic groups these villains could be representative of. Mulan herself is noticeably lighter in skin tone, with smaller stature, and a more roun

     In the original ballad, Mulan’s story was meant to be one reflecting filial piety. Loyalty to family and self-sacrifice for the sake of communal good are very important ideals in Confucian societies like the one in which Mulan would been written (Langfitt, 1999). It is only when Mulan was brought to America that she became an icon for gender equality, beginning with Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior. Kingston’s rendition popularized Mulan as a symbol for defying the patriarchal views which Kingston felt dictated much of her life growing up as a Chinese-American. When this idea became associated with Mulan’s character, the following renditions of her story followed suit in using her as a symbol of female empowerment. While this message may be appreciated in today’s society, it is certainly not the very Eastern belief upon which Mulan’s story was first founded. Much, if not all, of the feminism surrounding Mulan’s story in each of the American re-tellings has been born completely b

     Receiving the most backlash of all the American versions of Mulan is Mulan (2020), which in part marketed itself on the premise of being a more authentically Chinese production than its earlier counterpart in 1998. For a movie which marketed itself on its cultural accuracy, Mulan (2020) fell woefully short of its goal. Rather than creating a piece which had the potential to bridge the gap between Chinese and American people through their mutual love for this story, the film created a work which gave Americans the mere illusion of Chinese representation while giving Chinese viewers something that may feel more foreign than familiar. It is understandable, then, that many Chinese people may feel that the movie is disrespectful in the way that it markets itself as being Chinese without actually being Chinese, similar to American “Chinese take-out.” Just like a fortune cookie, this movie was a nearly entirely American creation with some inspiration from China which attempts to pass its