Web Quest: Creative Interpretation of a Folktale, Essay Example

While many people have both viewed and enjoyed the Disney movie Mulan, few people are aware of the origin of the tale. The modern film portrays Mulan as a hero, who dresses up a man to replace her aging father in the Chinese army. While there, she meets many challenges and while it takes her some time to increase her fighting skills, she eventually becomes successful. After getting hurt in battle, medics tend to Mulan’s wounds and find out that she is really a girl. Since girls are not allowed in the Chinese army, she is kicked out and forced to fend for herself. While she is wandering, she learns that the Mongol army plans to attack the emperor. She rushes back to her village to warn the army, who ignores her. However, Mulan developed her own plan to protect her people and saved the day (Cook).

According to “A charming view of Chinese myth Review: ‘Mulan’ is fun to watch. Disney does it again”, the movie Mulan is based off of a Chinese folk legend about Fa Mulan, a strong woman who resisted the stereotypical female role of her time period (Hornaday). Like the Disney film, she joins the army to stand up for her father. However, while the Disney film acts to be encouraging to young women, the purpose of the Fa Mulan tale is to make women understand their proper place in society. According to the Association for Asian Research in “The True Mulan Portrayed in Gala”, Mulan fought the entire war without ever revealing that she was female, and upon returning home, her family celebrated her honor in secret. According to other accounts however, Mulan was discovered to be a female by the army and was left for dead and no one knew what truly became of her (Zhusi).

To understand the context of the original story of Mulan, the reader must understand that the ancient Chinese culture was ruled by men and that women had little opportunity to partake in activities outside of the home. In contrast modern society, with the advent of women’s rights movements, attempts to empower young women. As a consequence, the rewriting of Mulan resulted in a story that allowed young girls to feel that it is okay to be female, that women are equal to men, and that women could achieve great things. In contrast, the story of Fa Mulan showed that a women had no place in the Chinese imperial army, regardless of the version that is told.

Although both stories teach different lessons, they both fit in with the definition of a folktale because they are both stories that “sought to entertain, to inform, to create conformity, to guide, and to comfort” (Folk Literature: The Origins of Children’s Literature 2). It is clear that the lessons that folktales aim to teach is based on differing concepts of what is socially appropriate. It is interesting that the modern version of Mulan promotes female empowerment, while the ancient Chinese version attempts to mute it. In addition, the audiences for each version of the folktale are significantly different. The ancient Chinese Fa Mulan was advice to society as a whole, while the Disney version of the folktale was aimed at young children, particularly girls. Since Mulan was a successful film, it was also made into a book for young children that contains bright pictures to accompany the story. While, it manages to contain a lesson, a secondary goal of the adapted story is to provide entertainment.

Works Cited

Cook, Barry, Tony Bancroft, Pam Coats, Rita Hsiao, Ming-Na, B D. Wong, Soon-Teck Oh, Eddie Murphy, Freda F. Shen, Harvey Fierstein, George Takei, Jerry S. Tondo, Gedde Watanabe, Matthew Wilder, Miguel Ferrer, James Hong, June Foray, Pat Morita, Frank Welker, David Zippel, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans P. Bacher, Ric Sluiter, Michael Kelly, and Souci R. D. San. Mulan. United States: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2004.

“Folk Literature: The Origins of Children’s Literature “. Week 2 Lecture. Children’s Literature. AIO.

Hornaday A. “A charming view of Chinese myth Review: ‘Mulan’ is fun to watch. Disney does it again”. The Sun. 19 June 1998. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-06-19/features/1998170047_1_mulan-ancient-china-eddie-murphy

Zhusi. “The True Mulan Portrayed in Gala”. AFAR. 1 Nov. 2006. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. <http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2805.html>