The Legend of Mulan

Thanks to Hollywood, many of us around the world grew up with the tale of Mulan, and recently a new version by Disney has introduced it to a new generation. Everyone knows the basic plot: When war comes, and the emperor orders every family to provide one man to serve in the army, Mulan, a young woman, disguises herself as a man and enters the service instead of her aging father, ultimately rising to be a great hero.

But what was the original legend? The literary source is "The Ballad of Mulan," most likely written in the 5th century A.D. during the North and South Dynasties. This was a period of disunion in China and saw the mass migration into the country of many ethnic groups at the time considered "barbarians." Mulan belonged to one such ethnic group, the Xianbei. Indeed, the "Ballad" tells us as much: in it, it is not the "Emperor" who decrees that every family should supply one man; it is the "Khan." The war in question was most likely the one began in 429 A.D. between the Xianbei kingdom called Northern Wei and the race known as the Rouran. And by the end of Mulan's adventures, the Khan offers her the position of a cabinet minister. She turns him down and asks simply to go home.

So in her own time, Mulan might well not have been considered "Chinese." But, 16 centuries on, the Mulan legend is indisputably a part of Chinese tradition. Who decides which story is "ours" to tell and which isn't? Does Disney have just as much right to take liberties with it as the many Chinese authors who have done so over the centuries?

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