Mulan’s Mirrors:

From the ancient ballad to the Disney animation

Mulan looking into the mirror:

脫我戰時袍著我舊時裳當窗理云鬢對鏡貼花黃

“ I take off my wartime gown And put on my old-time clothes." Facing the window she fixes the cloudlike hair on her temples, Facing a mirror she dabs on yellow flower powder

Genealogy of Mulan: Ballad of Mulan (Ode to Mulan) Maid Mulan enlists in her father’s plac

e [Ci Mulan tifu congjun, Ming Dynasty]

Hua Mulan (Yu opera, 1956) “White Tigers”, The Woman Warrior (1

976) Disney Mulan (1998)

Ballad of Mulan Gujin yuelu [Musical Record Old and New],

Chen Dynasty, 568 Yuefu shiji [Collection of Music-Bureau Poe

ms], Song Dynasty, 12th century

“雄兔脚扑朔，雌兔眼迷离两兔榜地走，安能辨我是雌雄 ?”

"The male rabbit's feet kick up and down, The female rabbit's eyes are bewildered. Two rabbits running close to the ground, How can they tell if I am male or female?"

Two questions un-clarified: Time setting: ?The Han Dynasty (205BC-AD220) ?The Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) Identity of Mulan: ?Non-Chinese (Han) “The Khan is calling for a great force On her return she sees the Son of Heaven The Son of Heaven sits in the ceremonial h

all. The Khan asks her what she desires. I wish to borrow a ten-thousand mile camel”

Northern military woman Confucian model:

gentle & graceful

Confucianization of Mulan: Tang Dynasty: model of filial piety, moral int

egrity and chastity Three cardinal guides: Monarch guides subj

ect; Father guides son; Husband guides wife

xiao (filial piety); zhong (loyalty to the monarch)

Mulan poem in Tang: How laudable is Mulan’s virtuous integrity, Serving as the model of the monarch’s subjects. Her unswerving loyalty and filial devotion Will be remembered even after thousands of years.

jie (chastity) Maid Mulan enlists in her father’s place: “starting out with a vehement sense of filial

duty but ending up with a great contribution to the emperor; blending with the male but maintaining her chastity”

Loyalty to the emperor vs. filial piety Segregation of the male and the female Mulan: serve the motherland by serving her

father “Twenty-four True Daughters” “General of Filial Piety”

Bound feet

Marriage Having heard about the distinction of your li

terary talents in the emperor’s court, I am ashamed of myself, who back from th

e battle fields, May not be a match for you. However, please be assured that I will mak

e a pliant wife of yours, And will never confront you with the formid

able temper of a solider.

Maid Mulan enlists in her father’s place

Hua Mulan (Yu opera)

Korean War Patriotic devotion Women as half of the sky

The Woman Warrior Connection between Chinese and American identit

ies Two Chinas: the old feudal China and the new Red China “White Tigers”: Fa Mulan The peasant uprising: individuality →a public caus

e

The new red China: The depth and width of joy were exactly known to

me: the Chinese population. After much hardship a few of our millions had arrived together at the capital. We faced our emperor personally. We beheaded him, cleaned out the palace, and inaugurated the peasant who would begin the new order. In his rags, he sat on the throne facing the south, and we, a great red crowd, bowed to him three tries. (WW42)

The founding of PRC in 1949 Red guards and the Cultural Revolution The revolution and women’s liberation

Top 20 Films in the U.S., 1998 (ranked by domestic box offices in U.S. millions of dollars)

Rank Movie Title U.S. Domestic Foreign 1 Armageddon 201.6 306.4 2 Saving Private Ryan 191.0 242.3 …… 6 Dr. Dollittle 144.2 141.5 7 Deep Impact 140.5 208.3 8 Rush Hour 140.4 36.0 9 Godzilla 136.0 239.7 …… 11 The Truman Show 125.6 122.8 12 Mulan 120.6 176.5

Disney Mulan Disneyfication: Westernization and globalization by a multin

ational studio Formulaic production: Good prevailing over evil; emotional, catchy songs; cute an

imal sidekicks for comic relief; young romance; character voices performed by film stars

Mushu: Mooshu pork; Eddie Murphy Cri-Kee: cricket

Why does Mulan leave home for the army?

Filial piety → Reciprocal Love Search for self Filmic cliché: villains being speared and carried away by rockets (True Lies 1994; Broken Arrow 1996)

Zhang Ziyi or Li Yuchun? Stanley Tong 唐季礼