World Religon Mulan Paper

Marisa Hoosac
Word Count: 1503
Mulan-Chinese Tradition
Introduction to World Religion T/T 9:30

As I sat down to watch one of my favorite childhood movies, Mulan, as a critic representing Chinese religion, I expected to see many changes that Disney may have made to the traditions to make it more understandable for children, but I shockingly found that Disney stayed true to many Chinese traditions. Something that stood out to me while watching this movie was the theme of honor and respect. This is a theme that is quite obvious in Chinese culture, and it is demonstrated in Mulan in many ways including the worship of ancestors, respecting others above one, and also the respect that woman must have for men. First of all, the facts. The Chinese worship their ancestors as a form of respecting their elders. Respecting and “appeasing” (Claudia Liebeskind) the ancestors is a daily chore that the Chinese must follow to live happy, healthy lives. A Concise Introduction to World Religion mentions that the cult of ancestors began at the dawn of Chinese history. It began as “restricted to the nobility” but it soon became a family practice to bring the community of dead and alive together (462). What I understand from this class and my current Asian History class is that the Chinese believe that their ancestors look over them; therefore, they do ceremonies and rituals to constantly sacrifice to them. According to A Concise Introduction to World Religion, “Memorial services were conducted at ancestral temples, and eventually at grave sites or in the home. Wine and food were offered with silent prostrations in front of tablets representing the ancestors” (462). These examples demonstrate the diligentcy that the Chinese have to worshiping and appeasing their diseased ancestors. In the Chinese religion, the respect of elders and of people in a vertical hierarchy from one are some of the most important traditions in one’s life. First of all, each person’s role in society is based upon what family they are born into/what last name they have (Claudia Liebeskind). Therefore, every person must respect the people above them, whether it be in a family or in society. If someone does not practice the tradition of respecting elders and authoritive figures, they and their family would be shamed in the eyes of the whole society. Achieving respect for one’s family is the ultimate goal of every Chinese family unit; therefore, everyone in a unity must obey the rules of society. Woman have always been seen as lower than men in most societies, but in Chinese societies, they are seen as incapable of doing anything but cook, clean, and bare children. It is said in A Concise Introduction to World Religions that “woman’s place in society is that she is to obey her father while at home, her husband when married, and her son if widowed” (467). This quote demonstrates the extent to how much respect a woman must have for men in their life. A woman’s world revolves around the man of the house and she must obey whoever that man may be. In Chinese history, legal concubines have also been a huge part of a household. According to Claudia Liebeskind, most wealthy men had multiple concubines, which were basically legal mistresses that lived in the homes, under the command of the man, wife, then usually the first, or favorite, concubine. These woman came from unwealthy families who were not requested to be married by a man; therefore someone requests them as a concubine, which isn’t dishonorable, but definitely not honorable by any means. These facts are just some examples to show how much lower woman are seen in society compared to men. Therefore, woman must obey men, no matter what. Now to the source I have chosen, Mulan. The movie starts with Mulan doing her morning chores and studying for an exam she has. This exam is going to determine whether she is worthy of being a wife or not, so she has to work diligently to achieve this goal so that her family will obtain honor and respect in Chinese society. They show the father praying in a hut to their ancestors’ tombs and statues, as most Chinese people do every morning. Mulan’s father mentions to her that she must do well on the exam to “uphold the family honor”, so she is very nervous. They all then sing the song “You’ll Bring Honor to us all” which is a great depiction of Chinese tradition that a family achieves honor if a daughter marries someone in high power. Unfortunately Mulan doesn’t do very well on the exam, so her family is shamed and told that their daughter will never marry a worthy man. One person even snickers and jokes that “maybe someone will take her as a concubine”, which I was shocked that Disney would say, being as the movie is intended for children. One thing that Disney did spare the children the horror of seeing was what would really happen if Mulan wasn’t married, it has been said in my ‘History of Asia’ class that many girls who aren’t married off are beaten by their father because of the shame he feels….Once Mulan and her parents get home, they get a notice from the leader of the country that a man from each family must join the Army. Since Mulan is an only child, and only men can join, her father must go. Mulan shouts out to the man with the notice that her father can’t go because he is injured. The man proceeds to say “you should teach your daughter to hold her tongue in a man’s presents”. What this man said is a great example of how woman were treated in this society…Mulan then goes against respect to her elders and takes the family honor into her own hands. Since woman aren’t worthy or strong enough to fight, Mulan disguises herself as a man to join their Army. Once she runs away, the theme of ancestors comes back into play. Since this movie is made for kids, Disney makes the idea of ancestors easy for children to understand by representing them as ghosts. The ancestors are all awaken from their tombs and statues to watch over Mulan on her journey as a soldier. Mulan eventually proves herself as a strong soldier and everyone in her group respects her. But even though she has proved herself as a strong man, she must still obey her leaders. If she tries to speak to her leaders as if they are of horizontal hierarchy, she is punished and shamed. Eventually, they find out that she isn’t a man, and they all lose respect that they had gained for her. They didn’t care that she had completed the same training and fought the same fights as them. They still saw Mulan as below them since Chinese tradition has taught them to treat woman as inferior. When she is discovered, the men throw her off of a horse into the ice, even though right before, when they thought she was a man, she saved her leader’s life and he had gained tons of respect for her. But the leader’s Chinese background taught him no different but to treat woman differently. He says that Mulan doesn’t respect men the way a woman should, trying to masquerade as a man, so she shamefully begins to walk home when she realizes that this would be too much shame brought to her family. Then, Mulan decides to win back their trust by warning the soldiers of a surprise attack that is about to happen. But once she does, since she is a woman, nobody will listen to her. Many people make remarks to her to like “respect men, don’t try to be like one”. But since this is a Disney movie, there must be a happy ending. She proves herself to be as strong and worthy as a man and brings honor back to her family, and that is the most important thing to her. The ruler of China gives her a medal of honor and the sword of the ruler of the army that she had beat and says “you have brought your family the highest honor”. She then goes home to give it to her father, who is upset that he is shamed by China and may have lost his daughter. When she gets home he is not only happy that Mulan is alive, but also that the family now has honor and respect. He tells the “ancestor ghosts” and they are ecstatic that they have honor back, because the ancestor’s goals are to be honored by their children. Then, Mulan’s leader from when she was in the army comes to her home and asks the father if he may be with Mulan. This is a very important part of the story because, as mentioned earlier, the goal of every girl is to be married to someone in power. Disney doesn’t change many things in the story, but a happy ending with a prince is always essential.

Works Cited
Liebeskind, Claudia. History of Asia. Fall Semester, 2014
Mulan. Dir. Tony Bancroft, and Barry Cook. Buena Vista Pictures, 1998. DVD
Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.