The Legendary Warrior that Inspired Disney's Mulan Is Pretty Badass [x]
(By Kristin Lai) (with some excerpt from Disneyfied)
We all know the story of Disney's 1998 animated classic, Mulan. Girl goes to war in place of her father, overcomes adversity, kicks ass, takes names, becomes a hero and falls in love. It's a beautiful tale, and a pretty open and shut case.
But did you know that Mulan is rumored to be based on a real person?
The original story of Mulan comes from the Chinese tale the Ballad of Mulan. While the real-life Mulan was speculated to have lived during the Northern Wei dynasty (386CE – 536CE), her story was first transcribed in the 6th century. Although the poem is great in itself, it's also pretty short and lacking in detail.
Since Mulan's story has become one of epic and near-mythical proportions, there have been countless retellings and additions to her story. The version we are most familiar with today, and the model for Disney's version, likely stems from Xu Wei's play The Heroine Mulan Joins the Army in Place of her Father (1368 - 1644).
While Disney's version of the young warrior was awesome and empowering for girls everywhere - myself included - the original story of Hua Mulan (by which I mean the play) shows that she was even cooler than Disney let on.
1. She was a highly skilled warrior
Probably the biggest difference between the Disney movie and the Wei version of the tale is that Mulan had to learn to fight. A large portion of the Disney film was spent showing Shang Li teaching Mulan how not to die on the battlefield. How could anyone forget that lovely training montage set to "I'll Make a Man Out of You?"
In the play, Mulan grew up as a tomboy with her father teaching her to fight at a young age. By the time she enlisted in the Chinese army, she already knew martial arts, how to wield a sword, and how to competently use a bow and arrow. Sorry, Shang Li, but maybe she could teach you a thing or two about how to be a man.
2. Her family dynamic was totally different
In the Disney film, Mulan isn't really great at anything when we first meet her. She's deemed undatable by the town matchmaker because she lacks the skills that would make her marriage material. Her family is visibly disappointed by this fact, which causes Mulan to basically hate the person she is and the woman she can't seem to become. Part of the reason why Mulan goes to war in the first place is to prove her worth and redeem herself to her seemingly dishonored family. If she can't make it as a woman, then maybe she can as a man.
In the poem, Mulan is honest with her parents about wanting to go to war. She puts down her womanly duty of weaving, goes out and buys a horse, saddle, and bridle and off she goes! Although her parents are bummed that Mulan will be away fighting in the war, it just seems like the most natural decision for her to go in place of her father or little brother (yes, she has a little brother in the poem as well, not just a dog named "Little Brother"). They're kind of like, "Bye, we'll miss you!", but there's definitely no dramatic scene of her leaving in the dead of night.
She does have some self-doubt at the very end of the play for completely non-war related reasons, but we'll get to that later.
3. She didn't have any sidekicks
Sorry, Disney fans, while we all loved the addition of her sassy horse and "lucky" cricket pals, Mulan didn't have any anthropomorphic animal friends helping her along the way. Sadly, there also isn't a peanut gallery of goofy, spectral ancestors.
And as for Mushu, there was no small, red dragon sent by her ancestors for protection and comic relief. Although I doubt that any of this will come as a huge shock to any of you.
This Mulan also has soldier buddies, which are lovingly referred to as “SOLDIERS” throughout the play. They are nothing more than stage hands really, and serve only to lead Mulan to and from the army camp at the beginning and end of the tale. There is no love interest among this motley crew, in fact Mulan is married off to her next-door neighbour as soon as she gets home.
Wei’s play version is more heavily focused on Mulan, and the other characters are only really used to set the scene and represent her actions. The lack of supernatural elements makes the story more realistic, and this was probably the author’s intention – there is nothing particularly special about Mulan, and she could be pretty much anyone going to war.
The Disney film tries to paint a broader picture about life as a soldier, and also introduce western audiences to some aspects of Chinese culture. The fact that her ancestors are involved gives her more of an aura of “the chosen one” and highlights the importance of her actions, in that she is breaking free of her restrictive society.
By this point in the story, both Mulans have shown their figurative balls by becoming lauded soldiers and war heroes. However, their lack of literal balls can’t remain a secret forever.
4. There was no big gender reveal
Just when our movie Mulan is fitting in with her fellow soldiers and everything seems to be going well, she becomes injured and it's revealed that she was a woman the whole time *gasp*!
It's not until she saves the whole damn empire that everyone accepts her for the awesome person she's been the whole time.
In the play, Mulan's only request upon returning from battle was to go home to be with her family. It wasn't until she was home that she voluntarily revealed her gender to her brothers in arms. Actually, nonchalantly is nearer the mark. After the war, she invites her soldier buddies back to her home village, and then disappears into the house to greet her parents and put some slap on. Her soldiers march in after her and happen to notice she is suddenly female.
Instead of baring their swords, shouting about dishonour and threatening to rend her into tiny pieces, they gasp and shout with elation, saying this is the greatest miracle of all time and pretty much slapping each other on the back in wonder. Then they go home.
So, in a play that was actually written in medieval China, and includes misogynistic anachronisms such as foot-binding, the Chinese army are totally okay with the fact that Mulan is a woman by the time it is revealed.
(Jenya's note: It is still an important part of the tale that she had to keep her true gender identity a secret, so it's very possible that the real-life Mulan could have been killed if it had been discovered - especially early on, but the truth is that the reason for her secrecy is never explicitly stated in either the play or the ballad. By the time she reveals the truth in the play, her heroics over the course of a decade have already garnered great respect, which I'd wager would make all the difference in the reception).
5. Mulan was in the army much longer than we thought
How long do you think the war took in the movie? Maybe a year or two? They don't really make it clear, but whatever the timeline, it doesn't even come close to the play and the original ballad - in which Mulan spent 12 YEARS away from home. Believe it or not, Mulan was able to fight in the army for over a decade without anyone ever finding out she was a woman.
Although Disney took a lot of creative liberties with Mulan's story, I think their adaptation of the legend was still fantastic. They found a way to make it resonate with young audiences and empower its viewers. With news that Disney will be making a live-action version of Mulan's story, I hope that they rely less on the success of the animated feature and pull more from Xu Wei's play. This could be the perfect opportunity for Disney to show us a more accurate and badass version of Mulan.
Would you rather see a rebooted live-action version of the 1998 Mulan, or one that stays closer to the source material?
P.S. - I highly recommend reading Disneyfied's blog article on the subject for a more in-depth compare / contrast evaluation of Disney’s and Wei's Mulan, it's excellent.
P.P.S. - If you're interested in a live-adaptation of Wei's Mulan, check out the Chinese 2009 film Mulan (here, with English subtitles).
P.P.P.S. - Happy International Women's Day!
