C.T

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.