#Discussion: Fiction Friday - Mulan (1998) Review

[weber_dubois22]

This was initially where my last post about Disney, Sexism and Racism was going until I realized that Disney’s racism really does deserve it’s own topic. If not a series of them. The problematic issues brought up in that post are still true in this one. I also suggest everyone read ColorQ’s review which goes down how incredibly inaccurate Mulan is to the source material as well as Chinese culture at the time and a few other points as well, and this post in no way refutes them- they’re all true.

Aside from the numerous problems (which are inevitable, this being Disney and Hollywood in general), I do like Mulan, I like the way it approaches sexism because it isn’t in an over-the-top approach of smashing anyone over the head with an aesop or trying to invalidate feminists, it wouldn’t be an awful way of showing it in our culture. Unfortunately, Mulan would probably be completely unacceptable if she were white and in white culture.

The film basically begins with Mulan writing notes on her arm, that to fulfill her duty she must be “Quiet and demure…graceful…polite… delicate…refined…poised… punctual”, as she realizes that she’s late. She uses her head to do her chores, tying the bird seed and a bone on a string to her dog so that he’ll spread the seed and do her chore of feeding the animals- saving her time. As this happens, Mulan’s father, Fa* Zhou, is praying to the ancestors to “help Mulan impress the matchmaker”. The dog, still chasing the bone, runs around him- and 3 chickens chase him in and start pecking at the feed in the shrine of the ancestors. The father seems unphased by this, the only sign that he’s aware of it that he adds “Please, PLEASE, help her”. Mulan walks up to the shrine, stopping to give the dog the bone he is still desperately trying to get. Her father bumps into her as he leaves the shrine, breaking a cup- Mulan brought an extra. It seems like the scene isn’t an unusual one, the only difference is that today Mulan must impress the Matchmaker to “uphold the family honor”.



The song “Bring Honor To Us All” (video, lyrics) takes place while Mulan is made into a “perfect bride” so that she’ll win a good match with her beauty and bring her family honor. We learn that the only way a woman can bring honor is by “bearing sons”, that “Men want girls with good taste, calm, obediant, who work fast-paced/ With good breeding/And a tiny waist/You’ll bring honor to us all”. During it, Mulan retrieves a doll that was stolen from a young girl by a little boy and passes by two men playing a board game- only needing a few moments to measure up the board enough to make a winning move. After the song, when Mulan goes to the matchmaker, she is told off for “Speaking without permission.” as well as for having a figure that is “not good for bearing sons”. It, of course, ends in complete disaster and Mulan is told that she is a disgrace because she will never bring her family honor by marrying well and bearing sons.

After this, Mulan returns home and, when her father smiles at her she hides her head in shame and rushes off. She ends up, this is Disney, singing a song (video, lyrics) saying that she’ll never be a perfect bride or daughter, asking “Can it be I’m not meant to play this part?”. The song asks when her reflection will show who she is inside and realizing that if she were true to herself she would “break [her] family’s heart”. Afterwards her father goes to comfort her under a blossom tree they have. He points out one that hasn’t yet blossomed, telling her that “when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all”, which makes Mulan smile.



All things considered, it seems like Fa Zhou, doesn’t uphold gender roles very strongly in his household. It doesn’t seem unusual for Mulan to be running late or to take a creative way of doing her chores, and her father does not tell her off for not striking a match- he just assures her that he’s sure she’ll bloom in her own time. She also doesn’t seem very well-versed in what she’s expected to do in society, having to write notes on her arm for things you’d expect her to have been prepared for since birth. It’s very possible this is because Mulan is an only child and her father has a physical disability, so Mulan and her mother ended up having to take on traditionally male roles in the house for their family to get by. I don’t really know when this is supposed to be set to even try and get an idea about what society was like at that point. (although I’m going to go out on a limb and say “not like Disney suggests”)

The next scene, however, shows that no matter what Fa Zhou does in his own home- he still upholds the rigid rules of their society publically. Chi Fu, an advisor to the emperor, brings a proclamation of war- that one man from every family must go to fight. Mulan is an only child, and cannot go. She runs out and says that her father cannot fight, that her “father has already fought bravely” (he also walks with a cane, and it’s indicated that he has a wound- very possibly from when he fought bravely for China in the past). To this Chi Fu, who may be one of the most stereotypically portrayed and has one of the strongest accents as well as being the most blatantly sexist character, insists that “[Fa Zhou] would do well to teach [his] daughter to hold her tongue in a man’s presence”, to which Fa Zhou responds with “Mulan, you dishonor me”, a great shift from the earlier scene where he was comforting his daughter who had failed to make a good match.

Later on, at a dinner full of awkward silence as there’s an unspoken understanding that Fa Zhou’s chance of survival is low, Mulan finally slams the teapot to the table and angrily says that her father shouldn’t have to go, that “There are plenty of young men to fight for China”. Her father tells her that he knows his place, and it is time she learn hers. Mulan looks truly shocked and hurt by this (which suggests that this isn’t a common thing for her to be told), and she runs out in tears.



Mulan ends up taking her father’s place in the army and getting a small red dragon as her guardian to get her through it (via the Great Stone Dragon not waking up for no reason). The guardian manages to get Mulan into a camp-wide fight (that she manages not to get hit once through) in a few minutes and Mulan becomes fairly unpopular. The next song is sung by Shang, the captain in charge getting of Mulan and the men ready for war, and recounts his trials in doing so. At the beginning Mulan is probably one of the worst troops. Okay, that’s not fair at all- she’s bad, but so is everyone else. At one point Shang decides that she’s “not suited for the rage of war” and sends her home.

This would be an easy out. However, later on we find out the real reason Mulan entered the war. After she’s discovered as being a woman, she says, “Maybe I didn’t go for my father. Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right. So when I looked in the mirror I’d see someone worthwhile.” This is why Mulan does not take the easy out, and why she instead decides to prove herself by reaching the top of a pole with two heavy weights (a task Shang presented them at the start, which no one was able to do) by using her brain and figuring out a way to use the weights to her advantage to allow her to do it. As she’s climbing the sun rises and more of the men come out and see what she’s doing, and cheer her on. After this, she improves considerably, becoming arguably the best out of all of them, and everyone else improves as well. It could definitely be seen that when she’s trying to do it the way she’s supposed to, the way everyone else first thought that they had to approach training as well as climbing the pole, she fails spectacularly and it’s only when she remembers that she can do things her own way that she excels.



The song “A Girl Worth Fighting For” (video, lyrics) once again shows blatant sexism in the context of a non-European, non-white culture the likes of which really isn’t paralleled in any white Disney movie of the time. Throughout it the men talk about what they want in a girl (extreme beauty) and what she’ll do for them, particularly cooking, and how amazing they’ll find various aspects of them such as Yao’s strength and battle scars, Ling’s manly ways and turns of phrase. Mulan is clearly uncomfortable during the entire conversation and, when forced to contribute, says “How ’bout a girl whose got a brain, who always speaks her mind?” which is immediately dismissed with an uninterested “naah”. It’s hard to tell how this is supposed to be read- it could be a satire, that the men in it are made fun of. Ling says “I’ll bet the ladies love a man in armor” as he steps out of the lake and the water filling his armor gives him a very muscular, stereotypically “attractive” male figure until he squeezes out the water and is revealed for his real stereotypically “unattractive” figure. But even if it is satire, it’s still a problem these days of men saying that they only want a woman who will cook for them (even if it isn’t the only view), and the audience probably isn’t aware of satire.

The ending of this song has to be taken into consideration, though. The song is abruptly cut off mid-prank and suddenly turns to an incredibly dark tone as the people find that the town has been completely destroyed and Shang’s father (and his men) have been killed. I’ve also seen it suggested that the light-hearted song about what they’re “fighting for” abruptly breaking into that dark reminder of what they’re really fighting for is supposed to underline that the song isn’t to be taken at face value. And it is a very jarring transition. In this scene Mulan also finds a doll and, while Shang and the men honor Shang’s father and the father soldier’s- Mulan places the doll next to the helmet & sword to honor all the civilians that died as well.



After this is a scene that reiterates that Mulan thinking for herself is best. The small “army” of maybe 6 soldiers are facing the entire army of Huns. They’re about to use their last cannon to try and kill Shan Yu, the ruler of the Hun army. Mulan instead takes the cannon, runs up towards the charging Huns, and shoots off the cannon into the distance. Shan Yu realizes from the smug look on her face that something is up, and turns to see an avalanche falling on his army. The Chinese army, which was small enough and far enough to hide under a jutting out, is saved while the Hun army is buried in the snow. Mulan is called the bravest of the army and is celebrated… as she blacks out.

Unfortunately, Mulan was hurt in this and ends up being revealed as a woman. Chi Fu, who I mentioned earlier, is the first to leap against her, calling her a “treacherous snake”. The fact that she has single-handedly taken out the Hun army and saved China is ignored by him, all he cares about is that she is a woman. Shang looks to be trying to hide how he’s feeling right now, possibly because Real Men don’t show emotions, while Mulan’s 3 friends are visibly upset by this. Later on, after it turns out the Huns aren’t really dead and Mulan has to go and save China again- the sexism of the culture is again blatant as the men refuse to listen to her and Mushu reminds her that she’s a woman “again”.

Mulan rides up to where the men are and confronts Shang, telling him “You said you’d trust Ping. Why is Mulan any different?” (Ping was Mulan’s fake name as part of her officer persona). Shang doesn’t respond to this, but Mulan’s friends quickly run after her to find out what they can do to help her. The men who were, just a few scenes ago, insisting that they see no value in a woman with a brain are now choosing to follow her over their (male) leader.



Mulan’s plan, rather fittingly, involves the 3 men dressing as female concubines. As they’re revealed in this get-up, a reprise of the song “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” plays, now the lyrics saying “Be a Man”. They make the inevitable joke of one of them saying “does this make my dress look fat?” (possibly seriously, and from Yao- the overly violent man who wants his girl to adore his battle scars). The 3 then distract the Huns who are guarding the door to where Shan Yu is keeping the emperor. One of them comments on how they’re “Concubines” and the other says, in disgust “Ugly concubines” while the first guard waves flirtingly at them. They, of course, had to assert that “men in dresses” (yes, in this case they actually are men in dresses- but women who look like them in dresses would get the same reaction), which Queen Emily describes as “a pitiful figure, trying and failing miserably to pass as a woman”, a very problematic idea for trans women. It figures that Disney would have to throw in a reminder that it is completely unacceptable for men to be wearing such get-ups.

Thanks to their distraction (which involved soundly beating the Hun guards), Mulan and Shang go to help the Emperor. Shang, of course, rushes in and is almost killed by Shan Yu until Mulan distracts him and reminds him who really defeated him on the mountain. From this, Mulan ends up performing a series of feats that involve quick thinking and actually shows that her female garb can be a benefit (she manages to disarm him with a fan, something that the men aren’t shown as carrying around), she beats Shan Yu and saves China, etc.

Chi Fu, continuing to be the most blatant face of sexism, completely ignores everything, insists that what occurred was a deliberate attempt on his life, and says, “‘Tis a woman. She will never be worth anything”. Shang actually responds to this and begins to tell him off before the Emperor interrupts and points out that Mulan has saved all of China and bows to her before offering her a job on his royal council, and, when Chi Fu says there are no openenings, Chi Fu’s job.

Mulan declines and instead returns home, presenting her father with the sword of Shan Yu and the crest of the emperor, explaining that they are supposed to bring honor to the Fa family. Mulan is clearly nervous when she does this, concerned of how her father will react. Her father tosses aside these two things that, really, could be priceless and instead hugs her, saying, “The greatest gift and honor, is having you for a daughter”.

And then it takes another backwards swing. The grandmother, hopefully unaware of what the sword is and mean, dismissively remarks, “Great, she brings home a sword. If you ask me she should have brought home a man” and it isn’t until Shang shows up and expresses an interest in Mulan that she approves. Once again, a woman is only worthwhile if she has a man.



The scene between Shang and Mulan is good (aside from the historical inaccuracies that have been a constant of this movie), though. Shang is stumbling over his words while Mulan calmly handles it. As the commenter who inspired my last post said, “[Mulan] is definitely in control of that scene". It sets out that just because Mulan is a woman “again”, she isn’t going to return to the sexist gender roles that she never really fit in the first place. Mulan being in control of the interactions between herself and her potential love interest/future husband (if you watch the second movie, and then that only occurs at the end of the second movie), doesn’t imply that she’ll be a submissive wife who is subservient to her husband- nor that she should be.

*I don’t know why they changed them from the Hua family to the Fa family. A number of the names have been changed in the English version, so I’m using the English spelling, but it is not the proper name, really. Perhaps it’s just that [white/European] Americans can’t pronounce Chinese names.

SOURCE