While Trying to Appeal to the Asian Audience, Disney’s Mulan Got One Thing Terribly Wrong
What is the family value today’s Asian women really need?
Born and raised in China, I did not grow up with the animated Mulan as the only on-screen heroine that looked like me. However, that doesn’t discount my admiration for Mulan. What the story excites us is universal — to see a young woman gaining control of her life path without any assistance or constraints from the patriarchy.
I watched the live-action Mulan the next day when it came out. To my surprise, I wasn’t that bothered by the English-speaking characters and the out-of-place production design and costume, because something else disturbed me even more. Out of many cultural appropriation mistakes the movie has made, the praise of filial piety (孝 xiào) is the most unforgivable. It’s a shame that the American executives yet again made an assumption about another culture and thought they could sell in that market.
The original Ballard of Mulan was born in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589 A.D.) and likely from the Northern nomadic culture. The Han rulers then promoted it as a glorified example of filial piety, a virtue of respect for one’s parents. This virtue was translated into “devotion to family” in the live-action version of Mulan, in addition to loyal, brave, true.
Disney might have done some research to choose filial piety as a key concept in the new adaption. And I assume that the intention is to link the narrative back to its cultural roots. Nevertheless, the idea of filial piety is not what they think it is. It might be the opposite of that Disney’s Mulan was actually fighting for, and the exact reason that Disney has failed to appeal to the Asian audience.
After thousands of years of development, filial piety has become one of the greatest excuses for oppression, especially for women. To achieve this virtue, one must obey the parents unconditionally and sacrifice his/her personal interest if must. In ancient times, the disobedient could be punished by expulsion from the family, or worse — execution.
For women, filial piety means that they have no right to choose their fate but serve the patriarchy. One infamous discipline goes: “Obey your father at home, obey your husband after getting married, and obey your son if your husband passes away (在家从父，出嫁从夫，夫死从子).” So if Mulan followed this, she would never have the chance to run away and join the army. And historically, it was only the non-Confucian nomadic culture that may allow more liberty.
How is it relevant, you may ask? We may not live in feudal dynasties anymore, but the shadow of filial piety still haunts millions of people in China. Parents still use filial piety to control and manipulate their children into obedience for career choices and marriage choices. Take me as an example; I had to go through years of traumatic protests to defend my major in Media Studies, my career in filmmaking, and my choice of a boyfriend.
While parental control applies to sons and daughters equally, women face the pressure even more because they have to get married to qualify for a good daughter. In China, any woman unmarried after their late 20s is considered “leftover women” and brings disgrace to the family, while men have much more flexibility in the timeline. In the 2019 documentary Leftover Women, 34-year-old lawyer Qiu Huamei was brutally condemned by her parents for being selfish to stay single.
The matchmaker scene might be hilarious in the movie, but it’s heartbreaking when it’s still happening in real life. While Mulan breaks the chains to pursue her true calling as a warrior, we should have a clear vision for Mulan’s modern version. By adding filial piety into her core values, Disney is actually taking back the efforts they have made in feminist storytelling.
In fact, Ballard of Mulan was adapted multiple times in Chinese media. But it inevitably falls into the troupe of the patriarchal narrative. In the 1998 T.V. series Hua Mulan, Mulan (Anita Yuen) met her husband Li Liang (Vincent Zhao) on the battlefield and had to deal with her difficult in-laws while fighting the invaders. It shows that even an independent female warrior cannot be spared of domestic hierarchy. The sequel of the show is literally called “Mulan Following the Husband (木兰从夫).”
While objectifying women and romanticizing domestic abuse in earlier movies, Disney has been intentionally trying to change the tide by building strong and multi-faceted female characters like Tiana and Elsa. And Mulan should be considered one of the first and most successful adaptations in this sense. However, the live-action version failed to reflect the progress we strived to make in more than 20 years.
Furthermore, it’s almost funny that Disney chose to promote filial piety, while the male adult characters (Tzi Ma, Donnie Yan, and Ron Yuan) don’t have any facial hair. Traditionally, the Han people never shave or cut their hair because the body is a gift from the parents, and one shall never hurt it intentionally. And that’s why there was a strong uprising when the Manchurian rulers of the Qing dynasty demanded the conquered Han people shave their heads.
I believe an authentic story is not just about getting the design and costumes right, but to truly adopt the perspective. Disney, next time when you take another culture to turn it into profit, at least do the research thoroughly, please? Today’s Asian audience is much more global and educated, and will not tolerate the insult on their culture. And it will surely reflect in the box office.
