Retelling the Story of a Woman Warrior in Hua Mulan (花木兰, 2009): Constructed Chineseness and the Female Voice.

Despite its global success, the animated Disney film Mulan (1998) did not win the hearts of many Chinese. In 2009, a Chinese live-action film Hua Mulan came out with the claim of presenting its own Mulan tale to the world. By viewing this film as a dialogical site, the article explores first, the hi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marvels & Tales Vol. 32; no. 2; pp. 362 - 388
Main Author: Li, Jing
Format: Article
Published: Wayne State University Press 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Despite its global success, the animated Disney film Mulan (1998) did not win the hearts of many Chinese. In 2009, a Chinese live-action film Hua Mulan came out with the claim of presenting its own Mulan tale to the world. By viewing this film as a dialogical site, the article explores first, the historical continuity of Hua Mulan's ideological values through the construction of her Chineseness; second, the film's unprecedented female voice and, through it, the critical retelling of gender and nation, which have been core issues in Mulan's filmmaking traditions in mainland China; and third, the multivocal space created by a younger generation's views on this film.