Insults to the Chinese culture?
Some people have said that this film insults China.
Can you give me any examples of what they mean by that?
"I haven't been a child since I was eight-years-old."
- Batman
I can give you at least three:
In the first place, China is all about duty tradition and honor. It is your duty to honor your elders through tradition. In the movie, Shang decided to ask Mulan to marry him without asking her father for her hand first. In real life, even in today's Chinese culture, that would have been unacceptable. They are all about honoring tradition and running everything by your elders.
Second, the main theme that everyone notices, is that Mulan changes what her intent was in the first film and preaches that you should "follow your heart" which means of course, do whatever you like. Thats not a good message to send anyways and again, its horribly inaccurate and insulting to the Chinese people because the put more stock in building up a strong character and obeying the laws and traditions set in stone, than doing whatever you want willy nilly like a college kid in the 70s.
And third, the one everyone seems to brush off or miss, but the one I think is the most insulting to China is the theme that arranged marriage shouldn't and didn't exist back in Ancient China. That was one of the core norms of society for much of China's history and Mulan's blatant MODERN protests about arranged marriage and how its "bad" are disrespectful to China's history. SHE would have been in an arranged marriage if not for her failed matchmaker test. Back then, arranged marriages were so common, it would have gone against any Chinese person's grain to even wonder if there was something wrong with it. In fact, this thing she has against arranged marriages coincidently ties in with her bad advice to the princesses later about following your heart, or being "like the other girls!" Yes because back then, instead of staying inside like a delicate flower, learning things like the Four Virtues, knowing how to flawlessly pour tea and be completely subservient to the men in your life from first to last breath, girls are outside playing, "climbing trees" and doing what ever they like.
Are those good enough examples?
Are arranged marrieges really the right thing culture or not though? I would think not
shareThat depends on your understanding of what an arranged marriage is. I have noticed that most westerners criticize arranged marriages with just a vague idea of what it actually is. They think all arranged marriages are forced where neither the bride nor the groom has any say in the matter and are more or less dragged towards it by their parents. It is completely incorrect to tarnish all arranged marriages by that brush. My own marriage is an arranged one. My husband and I were introduced to eachother by our parents. But there the parental involvement ended and after that it was all left to us. We dated for 1 year and got married totally by our own choice. There was no coercion by our parents.
shareI wouldn't call your parents arranging a meet an arranged marriage. Your relationship was more like a blind date thing. You could have refused each other and your parents would have most likely looked for another blind date. An arranged marriage has less leeway. Parents intervene way more and there are less chances of saying, "no I don't want to marry this person." That is why it looked down upon by most westerners. Blind dates, on the other hand, are not really looked down upon.
shareTrue enough. But in many countries now, including my own- Sri Lanka, this is essentially how an arranged marriage goes. There are way less instances of arranged marriage meaning a marriage in which the parents absolutely force their son or daughter to marry a particular person. Modern arranged marriages are a lot like mine was.When someone asks me whether mine was an arranged marriage or a love marriage, and when I say "arranged", I inevitably get a half disgusted half incredulous look because they immediately assume that arranged means forced!
sharePeople get way too upset and look far too much into Disney movies.
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-Weeds
Considering it was released in China and nobody had a problem with it that I've ever heard of (and my girlfriend is FROM China and doesnt have a problem with it)...I'd say no.
If anything, it's a very good thing these days that we even HAVE a movie that has an exclusively non-caucasian set of characters. In fact, there's not a single Westerner (voice actors like Eddie Murphy aside) represented in any of the characters of either movie. THAT is pretty rare. It's telling people it's OK to have a movie that is about people who aren't caucasian, and people will still love it.
And..you do realize that Mulan is (loosely but still) based on a rather old story/poem?
I found it pleasing to see that they actually even included a few aspects of Chinese culture and even some Mandarin words (Ba ba = father, Ma ma = ...obviously, mother).
And considering most of the main cast ARE Chinese in heritage...I don't think they'd do it if they thought so. It's not like Ming Na and B.D. Wong need the money that a direct-to-dvd sequel 7 years later would bring to their table...which I'll bet wasn't much. They probably just liked the script. I was surprised that they got both of them to return (and get Lucy Liu) until I actually saw the thing and realized it actually had a lot of heart to it. In fact...following your duty to your heart was the message.
And yes...they did directly disobey orders and go against family, which is traditionally not something approved of in any culture, especially Asian ones...but you can't pretend that there's NEVER been any dissent from authority or duty in all of China's long history. Sometimes, it's even NECESSARY, regardless of cultural practice or what is accepted as appropriate conduct. People routinely get into trouble with the government there today for speaking their mind - dissent happens. Just as Wei Wei.
WAS this actually released in China, I`ve been under the impression that this was a straight-to-DVD production done by Disney`s TV division rather than their Movie division.
The original Disney version of Mulan I know did get a Chinese release and was reasonably well received but its hard to see this one being very popular.
While it`s OK as a film the plot of Mulan II is rather in a derivitive Hollywood style that we`ve seen dozens of times before and has very little to do with the original legendary character.
The Chinese themselves have also made a lot of other versions of Mulan, some of which are as least as good as Disney`s original.
For example there`s this 2009 historical epic,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDjjFqGrHbA
And if you want to go further back to 1964 then there was this `Chinese Opera` style version,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tglm3anmue8
So as you see Mulan is not by any means just another Disney Princess but far more.
Can you imagine the outcry if Disney did a movie called Hamlet II and gave it a happy ending!
"Any plan that involves losing your hat is a BAD plan.""
I don't believe that you will ever read this reply, but thank you.
Yes, it is very annoying when people think that Mulan never would disobey orders or defy any traditions.
That is what she did in the first movie when she pretended to be a man and joined the army and found herself.
But that is also how she learned that you sometimes have to follow your heart...
I agree with your 3rd point. Arranged marriages have been in every single society since the dawn of man. I get why Disney would make Mulan have a more modern look at arranged marriages but most royals were married because of arranged marriages. From the rich (mostly) to poor have had arranged marriages. Women would not have a lot of say in the matter and princesses especially wouldn't be allowed to back out of an arranged marriage. The only way out of the marriage would be beheading the wife. Just like King Henry VIII. Even Native American and African tribes would sell off daughters to get tribes to stop fighting and join together to fight other tribes. It's just the lot in life of women for generations.
Namaste
This, this, this!! I completely agree. Such Western imperialism. "An ARRANGED marriage??" Ugh, STFU.
shareSecond, the main theme that everyone notices, is that Mulan changes what her intent was in the first film and preaches that you should "follow your heart" which means of course, do whatever you like. Thats not a good message to send anyways and again, its horribly inaccurate and insulting to the Chinese people because the put more stock in building up a strong character and obeying the laws and traditions set in stone, than doing whatever you want willy nilly like a college kid in the 70s.
Yes, apart from the obvious culture changes they made, this movie also contradicts the original one! All the conflict and emotion and moral and talks about honor and family of the first are forgoten share