Mulan Research Paper

Mulan, a well known name and not just in movies or books, but also ballads. The real story of Mulan was written in the 6th century, however, it was translated from Chinese to English in the 12th century. This beautiful piece of literature is called The Ballad of Fa Mulan. This is the original story that Disney wrote their movie on, but these two stories have two different messages, even though they are based on the same person. The Ballad of Fa Mulan begins with a young Chinese girl who decides to join the Emperor’s military in order to save her father from going. She leaves her home and embarks on a journey to serve ten years protecting her family’s honor. When her time ended, she went home and her family was excited to greet her again. When she goes home all the men she served with were shocked she was a woman, but it was not the end of the world. They accepted it and moved forward with celebration. This is how the true story of Mulan goes.

She pretends to be a male and fights for her country. When her fellow soldiers find out she is a female, she is kicked out of the military and said to have disgraced her family. The ballad is completely opposite from this story. In the ballad Mulan makes her way through the ranks in the military. When she made it home her family was excited and supported her. When her fellow soldiers found out she was female “they were all astounded and thrown into bewilderment… yet none had known that Mulan was actually a girl” (Mauqian line 34, 36). The original ballad had a much better story line and lesson, Disney changed the plot and put in messaging to the values that they believe. After watching the movie and reading the ballad I can see the major differences that were changed. Disney put their spin on it and I truly like the original ballad better and can’t see the movie the same