Author: Lau Guan Kim (---.starhub.net.sg)
Date: 03-08-02 09:30
Mulan: To Fa or to Hua, that is the question
Author: Lau Guan Kim
1999-03-19
Copyright
When the much-touted Disney's "Mulan" was released in Singapore, there was not much acclaim from the public. I for one was busily engrossed in other matters to miss the cartoon. A week ago I bought the CD and viewed it with my wife. In less than fifteen minutes, my wife was disgusted and refused to watch further. Twice I watched "Mulan" and I am convinced Disney is out to ridicule the Chinese.
First Mulan's family name is not "Fa" (as in Cantonese) but "Hua" (as in Mandarin). If the cartoon names her Fa Mok Lan that is not too bad, but to give her a Cantonese "Fa" and a Mandarin "Mulan" is too much for me and my Cantonese wife.
Unless 'Fa' is another accepted usage.
Disney pokes fun at Chinese ancestral worship. Some background rock music makes Mulan's ancestors dance like fans of Elvis Presley. The supposedly funny Mushu, a lizard of a Chinese dragon, was a subtle dig at the Chinese. The ancestor's choice was to revive the spirit of the mammoth stone dragon to come to protect Mulan. Instead, the stone dragon crumbled, and Mushu, the lizard-size dragon, conned his way to protect Mulan.
Disney's Chinese Dragon is a lizard.
The Chinese army is portrayed as a motley lot of softies and indisciplined men when compared with the invading Huns under Shan-Yu, their leader. Disney’sChinese emperor is an old man, an allusion to the old men ruling in the CCP .
What galls me is the supposedly comical farce to find a suitor for Mulan. Disney makes Mulan out to look like a geisha from Japan.
My feeling is that Disney's "Mulan" ridicules the Chinese in the guise of entertainment. A lovely Chinese tale of filial piety was twisted into an American satire on the Chinese. Hua Mulan, as I know from the story told to me by my nanny and grand aunty, is one of filial piety, patriotism and romance, in that order.
Disney makes her into Fa Mulan, a story of the ineptness of the Chinese.
I am not surprised why "Mulan" is not a box office hit in China.
My esteem for Disney diminishes.
I can see Disney with Richard Gere in politicising the cinematic art. It uses the performing art to bash China.
[End]
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