Disney’s Mulan is one of my favourite shows EVER. The interesting thing about it to me though, is that as a Chinese person I always saw that particular Mulan as ‘American’. I never identified with her as being Chinese. She had an American accent, the show was, to me, Western in the way it was structured and how the story played out. Sure there were throwaway references to matchmaking and ancestor worship, but only in form. The emphasis on Mulan wanting to break free and be herself, in particular, is not recognizably Asian. In fact I’d go so far as to say that it’s not a commonly rewarded notion in Chinese tradition. It certainly wasn’t the focus of the original text. The main point there was Mulan’s filial piety - The lengths that a daughter/child would go for her father. So watching it as a Chinese person within Asia, I’d watch the movie and love it (as I do so many Disney shows), but my appreciation wasn’t based on the fact that Mulan was a ‘Chinese’ character.
