To celebrate the film’s upcoming release, here’s an illustration I created of Mulan! For

To celebrate the film’s upcoming release, here’s an illustration I created of Mulan! For those who haven’t seen the original, it’s basically about a girl who disguises herself as a man in order to serve in the Chinese military, thereby protecting her ailing father from being drafted. Much like the eponymous character, there is a dichotomy to the way the story can be read - from a Western perspective, it’s about breaking free of society’s expectations, from an Eastern perspective, it’s about fulfilling one’s filial duty to your family and community. ⁣
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Much has been written about the westernisation of the original 1998 animation. I’m glad Disney decided to be more faithful to the original folktale in the new film but strangely there were elements in the original that spoke to those of us in the Asian diaspora (particularly those of us growing up in the West). Caught in a cultural tug of war, we understood the confusion of not feeling we belonged on either side of the divide, as well as the need to moderate ourselves in order to fit in. We also understood the idea of balancing individualism, one of the bedrocks of western culture, with the idea of eastern filial piety.⁣
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The hair-cutting scene, which (understandably) doesn’t appear in the new film, was particularly symbolic. In order to fulfil her filial duties, Mulan must go against her parent’s wishes (all the more poignant when you consider hair cutting was seen a mark of great disrespect to your parents in Ancient China). Asians who grew up in the West understand this paradox innately - in order for us to obey our parents, namely by becoming independent, by making a better life for ourselves than the one our parents grew up in and to navigate our way in the world and be counted as an equal in the western world, some of the cultural traditions, rightly or wrongly, must be severed in order for us to forge ahead. ⁣
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The reviews for the new Mulan have been glowing so far and I can’t wait to learn more about how it’s been updated!

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