The Widely known Disney movie, Mulan, has many accurately portrayed events and details, although at the same time has many inaccuracies. The Huns or the northern nomads from Mongolia attacked the Great Wall of China at nightfall. Referring back to the Disney movie, “The army list is in twelve scrolls, on every scroll there's Father's name.” This is showing that the empire is calling for men to serve in war. Historically backing this up, it is said that the Huns were around in the 400’s to 600AD and are located in Mongolia (Huns, 2017). Since the Huns are geographically in the same area as the Chinese empire, there is a large possibility that they could have attacked China. Whilst the story of Mulan has these truths, the movie of Mulan has displayed …show more content…
some false historical data, particularly in the way in showcases Mulan’s family. In the Disney movie, Mulan arrives back home and greets her father, “Mulan approaches her father, who is sitting under the cherry trees, She kneels in front of him”. In the ballad of Mulan it stated that: “When Elder Sister hears Younger Sister is coming… When Little Brother hears Elder Sister is coming.” This is showing she now has a little brother and an elder sister. Historically, according to the original legend of Mulan, there is very few mention of any sort of family apart from a father. “Mulan sees that her father has been conscripted into the army”. There is never any mention of a mother or siblings. Overall, the Disney movie of Mulan has very few accuracies in terms of being historically correct, although this may be because it is a children’s movie. Disney’s prominently known movie Mulan, displays many accuracies in its historical links in terms of women’s roles, whilst at the same time, does show some false references.
According to history in China, women had arranged marriages and were forced to marry the man her father chooses. The father had the final say on who his daughter would marry as women’s opinions were not taken into judgment (William, 2017). Females were not important to Chinese society, males were strongly respected and had higher “value”. When we look back at the Disney’s Mulan, “Fa Li, where is your daughter? The Matchmaker is not a patient woman”, Mulan is late arriving to her match maker session. The ballad of Mulan displays no evidence where Mulan goes to a matchmaker or even gets married. When it comes to the inaccuracies showcased in Mulan, there is one that is more prominent than others, women’s punishments. Referring to the Disney movie, women’s punishments are expressed incorrectly. Mulan goes to war in place of her father when she did not receive permission from her parents. “You shouldn't have to go!”… “Mulan is gone!” This is stating that Mulan left without consulting her parents first. Although, in the ballad of Mulan, there is no clear evidence that even her identity was discovered whilst she attended war, so there is no possibly that she had her life nearly taken away by a general. It is said that in ancient Chinese law, women who disobey their parents must be cut into pieces as a
consequence (Chinese law, 2017). This clearly didn’t happen as it would be far too violent for a children’s movie. As a whole, Disney’s adapted version of Mulan is inaccurate in more ways than others. One of the vital components in Chinese society is incorporated into this world renowned movie, religion. Chinese symbolism by using crickets was true to its allocated time frame. The Chinese strongly believed in the luckiness found in crickets. Disney integrated this into the movie, “I've got all the luck we'll need. [Holds up a wicker cage with a cricket inside.] This is said by Granny Fa who is about to walk across a crowded street in their home village to prove the crickets luck. In the end, she arrives safely and unharmed on the opposite side. The Chinese believed a fighting spirit and unending luck was found in a cricket (Gehrmann, 2017). The ballad shows no evident examples of Chinese symbolism as the ballad’s purpose is to paint the main picture. Whereas incorporating lucky crickets would be a much finer detail to add. However, in its design of Mulan there was some clear imperfections displayed. Mushu awakens the Fa family ancestors with a Chinese gong and they start a group conversation about how to protect Mulan from battle. This would never happen in reality as according to historical research, there is a clear difference between the veneration of the dead and ancestral worship. The veneration of the dead is when ancestors come and physically communicate with the living. Ancestral worship is when the living give praise to the deceased (veneration, 2017) so when the Fa family ancestors are awaken from the spiritual world, they have “ancestral worship” when really it should be classified as veneration. In this reconstructed version of Mulan there are very few elements that are factually correct.
Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.
(Doc. E). The wall was not one big long wall. It stretched three hundred miles to the west and there was a watchtower beyond the wall end. But there were still places that were not protected by the wall. The Xiongnu could just walk around the wall and them come in and invade.
Mulan goes through being rescued when she fights Shan-Yu on top of the roof of the Emperor’s palace and Mushu helps Mulan pin Shan-Yu down and blow him up with fireworks. Mulan‘s ego decreases when Mushu successfully tries to help her get rid of Shan-Yu. She considers herself a hero now and does not want Mushu to think she cannot fight her own battles. Mulan in the end disregards her ego in order for her to not die on the roof. Mulan crosses the final threshold when she returns to her home with the gifts from the Emperor hoping her family will forgive her for leaving the family to go fight in the war. Her father accepts Mulan’s new power and wisdom and told her that, “The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.” Mulan’s return to the past is pleasant and safe knowing that nothing can change her family’s love and affection for her. In addition, Mulan enters into the final step in the hero’s journey: the freedom to live. Mulan shows her freedom to live when she invites her soul mate, Li-Shang for dinner. This event marks the end of Mulan dwelling on the past and makes her excited, but not concerned about what the future
The movie and poem of Mulan both explain the story of a young woman named Mulan who lives in China during the Han Dynasty. However, the movie and poem describe the same story in different ways.
When Mulan goes off to protect her father, a small dragon, Mushu, goes after Mulan in order to help make sure she stays safe. “I am the guardian of lost souls. I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible, Mushu!“(Mulan). Mushu wants to protect Mulan and in turn protects her family name. Mushu made Mulan's journey much easier by helping her with every task a man was expected to be good at. Mushu encouraged Mulan not to quit and to get better than everyone else at the simple tasks. His guidance allowed Mulan to get better at being with men without as many
When the emperor sent out a request to send the men in China to war, Mulan was scared. Her father was one of the many men summoned to fight....
William Shakespeare once said, “[My] honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me, and my life is done.” The idea is touched upon in both the book Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as well as Disney’s Mulan were family honor is more important than anything else. Mulan was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film Mulan retold the story of a woman warrior who took her father’s place in battle and became a savior of China.The movie uses many elements from the original story told in the chapter “White Tigers,” but adds many modern twists in order to make the story more appealing for a newer generation. In both stories of Fa Mu Lan the elements of sacrifice, silence and voice, cultural practices of ancestor worship and filial piety, and Chinese stereotypes are present.
Set in the Northern Wei dynasty of China, the gender roles of China were simple as depicted through song in Mulan. “We all must serve our Emperor… a man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing sons.” Mulan’s one and only role in life is to marry a man, who she is deemed fit for and to bear many sons and tend to the home. She is to live a life of homely domesticity. This is perhaps one of the most obvious motifs that don’t shine a nice pretty light on Mulan. Mulan has to go to a beauty salon in order to meet the matchmaker and “bring honor” to her family. At the salon, Mulan is mercilessly soaked in a freezing bath, has her hair tied up neatly, her waist laced up, and is overloaded with excessive make-up and jewels. The potential brides, Mulan included, are thus made to look like “cultured pearls, each a perfect porcelain doll.” According to the beauty specialists, “A girl can bring her family great honor in one way, by striking a good match.” They preach that “Men want girls with good taste, calm, obedient, who work fast-paced, with good breeding and a tiny waist.” This demonstrates heg...
In my thesis, I want to answer the question of how Disney can use the same general plot and various identical story elements to shape the protagonists of Mulan and Moana into feminists, yet still produce two seemingly original stories on the surface. Both films center around a sixteen girl who embarks on a forbidden quest to save her people at the expense of her father’s wishes. The relationship with the overprotective father, more or less passive mother, “wacky” grandmother, and supernatural male travel companion influences what kind of person the protagonist is before and after the journey.
Many sources disagree as to when The Great Wall of China first began. The dates of the original construction vary from 656 BC3 to 214 BC4. This discrepancy is caused by the arguments whether the bordering walls built by the early feudal states are actually part of The Great Wall of China we know today. Th...
In discussing the Chinese dynasty’s and during the Han Dynasty, Ban Baio, a famous Chinese historian, wrote “Lessons for a Woman,” (200-300 CE) outlining the position and duties of women in society. As time changed and civilization emerged, so did history as it began to bel less biblical and more focused on social change. McNeill notes that, “cultural borrowing,” was in fact a huge part of civilization. This document in particular can serve as an example in which Baio felt was a set of instructions for the proper behavior and attitude of women, particularly with regard to their
Mulan tells that the story of brave Mulan. Mulan did not want her elderly father to fight in the war, so she disguised as a man and joined in her father 's army. Finally, Mulan defeated the Huns and Shan Yu (leader of the Huns) with her partners in barracks. This Disney film portrays the conflict perspective, feminism, and symbolic interaction perspective.
The classic Disney movie, Mulan, is often praised as a film involving feminist empowerment, but upon closer look just the opposite appears to be true. The classic storyline includes Mulan, a young Chinese woman, taking over her fragile father’s place in the Chinese army, disguised as a man named Ping. She trains among the other soldiers, becoming one of the very best with her accompanying guardian dragon, Mushu and a cricket her grandmother gave her for luck for the matchmakers by her side. She ends up saving all of China by revealing that the Huns are back and invading the country, and is honored as a hero. This movie breaks away from the typical damsel in distress princess story by having a single woman save all of China. However, on Mulan’s journey she faced extreme female shaming, and experienced stereotypes attempting to belittle her; all
Shakespeare is known for being a great writer, his play have been rewritten, re-adapted, and turned into films to keep their magic alive. However what many people do not know is that many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into many Disney Films. More precisely “Hamlet” is one of the most used plays. Movies such as “Tarzan," “Aladdin," and “101 Dalmatians” used many scenes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to inspire scenes in the films. The movie The Lion King by Disney, however, is one of the strongest and more closely related to “Hamlet” than any other Disney film, but how? More importantly what makes this movie more important and the focus of this essay?
Mulan reinforces the traditional ideas of masculinity in the song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” (Mulan 1998). The lyrics, “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?”(Mulan, 1998) portrays the traditional gender roles of men; it claims that male is the only sex that is able to fight. The goal of this scene is to “make a man” out of the new recruits. The movie Mulan asserts that being feminine is detrimental to the war effort. Instead, the docile, feminine recruits have to be transformed into men. This song in Mulan argues that one should strive towards being a "man";