When Shang Fell in Love with Mulan
Itās been a point of debate for twenty-seven years and counting, ever since Mulan was released to American theaters all over the country on June 19, 1998. You still see debates about it on the internet, you still see people aggressively insisting that Shang is 100% heterosexual and only fell for Mulan after she was outed as a girl, you still see people making bisexual edits of Shang and holding him up as a ābisexual iconā and accusing Mulan (2020) of practicing LGBTQ+ censorship by removing Shangās character.
My personal belief is simple: Shang was in love with Ping, but the cisgender and heterosexual filmmakers were not thinking about bisexuality when they wrote his and Mulanās love story.
Sound confusing? Yes. But Iāll try to break it down for you in simple terms, so youāll hopefully understand where Iām coming from. Hopefully, it might even make you want to rewatch the movie and look for what Iām talking about, because I think itās very obvious if youāre just paying attention to the film itself, not internet discussion based on nostalgia.
The thesis is this: Shang was unconsciously drawn to Ping, Mulanās male disguise, but only believed his attraction was ābrotherly loveā. He felt brotherly affection and respect for Ping at first, as indicated by him smiling at Ping for āhisā impressive progress in the second half of āIāll Make a Man Out of Youā and looking back at Ping for the āYouāre a great captainā comment. These feelings slowly started to change off-screen, somewhere between the training montage over three weeks (āIāll Make a Man Out of Youā) and the time passing montage of the platoon traveling (āA Girl Worth Fighting Forā), as he felt more and more drawn to Ping during their off-screen friendship and comradery in the army.
This friendship culminated in Mulan/Ping reaching out to Shang and telling him, āIām sorryā, as condolences during his grieving for his father at the ruined village. Shang touched Pingās shoulder to acknowledge that āhisā condolences meant a lot to him, and he valued āhisā friendship.
After Ping saved Shangās life in the avalanche, Shang realized he had fallen in love with Ping. He showed this by touching Pingās shoulder again and, this time, smiling at āhimā and telling Ping āheā has his trust. This is tantamount to a love confession from someone as reserved, stoic, and Chinese as Shang. He does not smile at any of his men unless itās sarcastic (āYao, thank you for volunteering.ā), and is not friendly with any of them except Ping. Ping is the sole exception to his very nature, the one person he thought he could trust and even love after his fatherās death.
But of course, that was when Mulan fainted from the sword wound Shan Yu gave her, was treated for her injury, and had her secret exposed as a result. And Shang is catatonic, devastated, and so angry and hurt by the fact that not only did his true love lie to him the entire time they knew each other, but also the fact that he has to kill her for being a woman who joined the army despite knowing the law against it.
Shang spares Mulanās life because she, as Ping, saved him during the avalanche. He leaves her behind with her provisions because he cannot bear to look at her anymore.Ā
And it is when Mulan bravely leads a rescue mission to save the Emperor, and proves she loves Shang by saving him from Shan Yu, that Shang realizes he truly loves Mulan, and wants to be with her, because he does not care about her gender. He cares about what he saw in her heart: her kindness, strength, courage, and intelligence. He never cared about what was between her legs; all he wanted was her love, and in the end, he got it.
Thatās what makes Mulan and Shang a perfect match, in my opinion. They deserved each other so much, and they got to be together in the end. A kiss would have been nice, but in the end, it wasnāt necessary. They already proved their love without one.
