“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
Yeah, dad wasn't too impressed with me doing a music degree, but I have fun all the time and get to create - it's worth it. It makes life a little less grey.
It’s 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 “bisexual icon” and accusing Mulan (2020) of practicing LGBTQ+ censorship by removing Shang’s 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 Mulan’s love story.
Sound confusing? Yes. But I’ll try to break it down for you in simple terms, so you’ll hopefully understand where I’m coming from. Hopefully, it might even make you want to rewatch the movie and look for what I’m talking about, because I think it’s very obvious if you’re just paying attention to the film itself, not internet discussion based on nostalgia.
The thesis is this: Shang was unconsciously drawn to Ping, Mulan’s male disguise, but only believed his attraction was “brotherly love”. He felt brotherly affection and respect for Ping at first, as indicated by him smiling at Ping for “his” impressive progress in the second half of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and looking back at Ping for the “You’re a great captain” comment. These feelings slowly started to change off-screen, somewhere between the training montage over three weeks (“I’ll Make a Man Out of You”) and the time passing montage of the platoon traveling (“A Girl Worth Fighting For”), 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, “I’m sorry”, as condolences during his grieving for his father at the ruined village. Shang touched Ping’s shoulder to acknowledge that “his” condolences meant a lot to him, and he valued “his” friendship.
After Ping saved Shang’s life in the avalanche, Shang realized he had fallen in love with Ping. He showed this by touching Ping’s shoulder again and, this time, smiling at “him” and telling Ping “he” has his trust. This is tantamount to a love confession from someone as reserved, stoic, and Chinese-coded as Shang. He does not smile at any of his men unless it’s sarcastic (“Yao, thank you for volunteering.”), 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 father’s 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 Mulan’s 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.
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.
That’s 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 wasn’t necessary. They already proved their love without one.
EDIT: Since this post is popular, I'm going to link my manifesto about how much I love Mulan/Shang here. Please take some time out of your day to read it; I promise that what I have to say about Shang's character will truly surprise you, and hopefully make you want to rewatch the movie. And please, please reach out to me and give me feedback once you've read it. I truly want to educate and entertain people with my manifesto, especially non-Asian people.
Got to see Six the musical! Absolutely amazing, fair play. Loved every second.
I especially loved how the main message is to support other women, build them up, and help them be their own people. It shows this image of female unity in a graceful way. They didn't bash any men and demonstrated how comparing each other is very damaging, hurtful and downright pointless. This musical is a 1st class hit.
To all that has seen this page/my other page, I just wanted to let you all know that I've been discharged from hospital and no longer have to monitor my ITP (as its on good levels).
Thanks to all that share my posts/read them/heart them. Means a lot. I'll continue to post on here.
I just went through all my old chats. Wow was I nieve haha. Lmao. But ya know, back because my cousin reminded me of this beautiful platform (thanks @thedivorceforce). Dam have I missed Tumblr. Flipping hell.
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