Let’s Talk About the Movie Mulan — What Went Wrong?
By: Christie Li
Tags: Mulan, China, Culture, Entertainment, Disney

Let’s Talk About the Movie Mulan — What Went Wrong?

Things you might want to know before entering the cinema

As we all know, the film Mulan was released by Disney earlier this year.

Unfortunately, the movie has received backlash. Being bundled together with its controversy, some even urged others to boycott the movie shortly after its debut.

There are certain aspects of the movie that perhaps you would like to be aware of before deciding to enter the cinema. To understand people’s rage towards it, there are two factors to consider: The remake itself and the political considerations behind it.

The story of Hua Mulan, simply put

For those who haven’t seen the Disney cartoon version, Mulan was a Chinese warrior woman who, just like others, was meant to be married in order to bring honor to her family. However, to prevent her aging father to be drafted into the Chinese military, she decided to take his spot by disguising as a man.

The musical was also accompanied by a dragon character, Mushu, and talked about how Mulan fell in love with the captain of the military along her journey.

Errors in the remake

Firstly, there are numerous cultural appropriation mistakes. A major reason for this issue is the lack of understanding in Chinese history.

One of the examples is the inaccurate description of Mulan’s ethnicity. In the original Ballad of Mulan, the story was set in the Northern Wei Dynasty. During this period of history, Khan was the ruler (not Han Chinese emperor) and the Touba clans ruled Northern China.

Unfortunately, in the new Disney movie, Mulan has been portrayed as a Han patriot who serves loyalty to the Han Chinese emperor, which is historically inaccurate.

Sadly, this is just one of the historical errors pointed out. The problems carry on.

Secondly, the problem with filial piety (孝 4xiao)that was added to the new adaptation. Whilst Disney’s intention of linking to filial piety might be to resonate with the Chinese cultural root, the concept was the core of Han Chinese philosophy Confucianism.

In the original Ballad of Mulan, Mulan could not have carried such a concept because she was not supposed to be a Han. Instead, her actions were purely out of love for her father.

Although the two concepts might be similar, the main difference between the two is that Filial piety in Confucianism hugely emphasized the attitude of obedience — absolute obedience of the young to the elders of the family. On the other hand, love does not mean obedience and is autonomous.

Other than issues with cultural appropriation, the new movie also did not turn out to be the Chinese representation that Disney claimed it to be. Although the starring actors and actresses are all Asians, the entire production crew behind the scene are non-Asian. The lack of diversity in the production team has therefore led to more criticism on top of other errors pointed out above.

Disney’s biggest failure is a lack of research and diversity in the production crew, thus leading to a series of cultural appropriation errors.

The political considerations behind the film

The controversy of the movie began when the leading star, Liu Yi Fei, publicly supported Hong Kong police in a post she published on Weibo last year, during the escalation between Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters and the police.

The Hong Kong Police Force was largely being accused of violating human rights, using excessive violence against the People of Hong Kong for months. By supporting the Hong Kong police, Liu Yi Fei is practically endorsing brutality and the level of violence in Hong Kong.

Many activists have ever since been urging people to join the #Boycottmulan trend.

Shortly after the release of the movie, it became noticeable that Disney gave credits to multiple government entities, including the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region committee and those in charge of re-education camps in Xinjiang.

It is also noticeable that the movie was partly filmed in Xinjiang, a sensitive area in China where it is being accused of having Uighur Muslims detained in concentration camps and their human rights abused.

Ironically, the story of Mulan tells the story of a young female warrior hero who stood up to her own beliefs in what is right and wrong. Yet, the remake of the film might have shown the opposite of the morals that the story advocates.

Let’s not let politics ruin the effort that people put into in this movie.

Whilst some people might truly believe in this saying, the truth is the impact of buying a cinema ticket to support this movie goes far beyond than just ‘supporting people’s effort’.

Not thinking your actions thoroughly enough doesn’t mean that there are no impacts from them. As I have explained in my article “Why Consumer Behavior Matters Much More Than You Think,” your spending habits show what you value in life.

In the end, consumer engagement in nature is political.