I chose to review this article "Mulan's Mixed Messages" by Chyng-Feng Sun because I grew up with and still enjoy Disney as an adult today. Mulan came out in the summer of 1998. I was 11 and this was one of my earliest exposures to Chinese culture. The other exposure was what I got in Chinese restaurants. In school Chinese/Asian history wasn't covered. I was curious as to what this article would teach me about "Mulan" and the messages it sent.
It opens with some of the positives. Mulan and the art behind it was authentic, Mulan was emotionally and physically strong and did not wait for a prince to save her. Unfortunately this does so by stomping on the Chinese culture around her. Disney portrays China as the most oppressive and sexist culture in the world of Disney animated movies. It portrays the myths about gender roles in China through western eyes by Western media.
The original legend shows Mulan as a weaver who takes the fathers place with her parent's consent. (Rarely do we see disney movies where if the parents are alive, the characters do things with their consent. See Ariel, Moana, Merida, etc.) She spends 12 years in the army, largely successful and supported. She is not revealed as female until her return home. The disney movie portrays Mulan as jobless, and pressured to marry. Matchmakers are actually rare in China. Her only value is to get married and bear sons. All Chinese men and women embrace this. This builds on to the message that China is cruel, oppressive, and sexist.
The author brings up that this was common in other movies depicting nonwhite cultures as barbaric. See this Aladdin clip where it originally said, "where they cut of your ear if they don't like your face, hey its barbaric but hey its home." Pocahontas also was seen as savage and pushed arranged marriages. Does Disney try to remedy this in more modern films? The next nonwhite princess is Tiana whom is African American. Living in a western culture the portrayal was much more American. Even though she is white and from Pixar you can see some of this with Merida who is Scottish living in an oppressive culture for women. Even in this movie it is the mom that is doing most of the pressure, the dad doesn't seem to really care about tradition. Moana comes from a Polynesian culture which seems portrayed as more equal. Moana was set to become chief.
White cultures like in Sleeping Beauty are bestowed to a prince at birth which is seen as romantic not oppressive. Disney likes happy endings. Ariel would have become sea foam in the end if they stuck with the true story. Mulan truly does not come full circle and seems to settle back into her life at the end, with a "prince" in Shang. The depiction of China's sexism towards women is not redeemed or diminished. It is interesting to view the live action version which adds an element of magic and does not truly confront this neither. The live action Aladdin seemed to try to confront this a bit more with Jasmine's character aspiring to become sultan and being more vocal then the original. I would be interested in the authors thoughts on the more modern movies like Brave, Moana, Encanto, and Frozen. (I have not seen Raya and the last Dragon yet so I did not include that one) It will be interesting from an academic perspective to see where Disney goes from here.
Melissa, I loved reading your post. This reminded me of a Cinderella story in my 2nd grade MyView Reading Curriculum. The changed the story to where she is a mechanic and says no to the Prince’s proposal of marriage because she has dreams of her own. My students, especially the girls, loved this version. They made comments like, “Good for her!” or “She doesn't need a prince!” I found these 2nd graders to be empowering and I was surprised how they did not buy into the Disney fantasy of needing a prince for a happily ever after ending.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, your post was so interesting and eye opening to read. I also grew up loving Disney, but as I continue to look at certain movies with a critical lens I begin to see the issues, especially when it comes to representation of culture and race. I am also interested to see where Disney goes and the efforts that are made. It seems with Encanto they paid more attention to the proper representation of the culture. Even though I will still enjoy Disney (pleasure) it can be acknowledged that improvements do need to be made on their part. (critique). Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete