Explorations in Music

It took me a while to pick a topic for this assignment that tells a great story while being something I personally identify with, and also has great music.  I finally settled on Disney’s classic 1998 action adventure “Mulan”. Inspired by the Chinese folk story called the “Ballad of Mulan” accredited to Gao Maoqian at some point during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). 

The movie is a retelling of the story of Fa Mulan, a daughter who doesn’t quite fit into the place that’s been assigned to her by society. She’s not what people would call a traditional Chinese woman of her time. She’s outspoken, she doesn’t care to practice the perfect etiquette that is expected of her which launches us right into the movie. Mulan is late for her appointment to be made up into a beautiful bride, and fails to impress the matchmaker and thus has brought “dishonor” to her family. 

A girl can bring her family
Great honor in one way
By striking a good match
And this could be the day

Every day
It’s as if I play a part
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart

Mulan laments her seeming inability to reconcile who she is at heart and who she’s expected to be to her family and the rest of society. She prays to her ancestors and when her elderly and disabled father is summoned to fight Mongolian invaders by the emperor she decides to take things into her own hands. She cuts her hair, takes her fathers armor, disguises herself as a man and joins the army in her fathers place. In the army Mulan struggles to fit in and she’s told to go home as her commander cannot “Make a man” out of her.

Let’s get down to business
To defeat the Huns
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You’re the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we’re through
Mister, I’ll make a man out of you

Mulan eventually earns the respect and friendship of her fellow soldiers and commander, but is shortly thereafter discovered to be a woman and thrown out when she is wounded in a battle. When she see’s the Mongolian army survived their last battle she defies her orders to return home and goes to warn the army and the emperor that they are all in grave danger.

She and some fellow soldiers then dress up as woman to sneak their way into the palace as concubines and they use their femininity to get the upper hand and take out the Mongolian leader. She ends up saving the emperor of china in the end. The emperor then declares that she’s not just honored her family but all of China and she goes home a hero.

In my opinion “Mulan” has a very clear empowering feminist message. A woman goes beyond her station in life where she is just expected to be a faithful daughter and wife as is traditional. She subverts these ideals by following her heart and doing what she feels is right for her family, and in the end it pays off. It’s her a woman who saves China, not her as a man. She’s then honored as hero in all of China. Not only is this a feminist message, but it’s also just a call to follow one’s heart and to be true to yourself.

I really connect with this movie and Mulan as a character, because I too have always felt like an outcast and a daughter who isn’t what anybody expected, and I have always felt extreme pressure to be what my family wants me to be to make them proud. Mulan is a good reminder that we only need to be who we are warts and all.

Hough, S. (2016, December 28). How Disney’s “Mulan” brazenly challenges gender and sexuality: Features: Roger Ebert. Features | Roger Ebert. https://www.rogerebert.com/features/how-disneys-mulan-brazenly-challenges-gender-and-sexuality

Manaworapong, P., & Bowen, N. E. J. A. (2022, July 2). Language, gender, and patriarchy in Mulan: A diachronic analysis of a disney princess movie. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01244-y