Footnoting Disney: Mulan

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Li Dandan as Mulan on horseback in Mulan congjun (Mulan Joins the Army) (Minxin, 1928)

Mulan is a story without a single historical precedent. From a medieval ballad to early modern narratives to plays and operas, it’s been told over and over again. Mulan’s exploits are always presented as having happened “once upon a time,” anytime from the Han dynasty to the early Tang period. These stories about a fierce heroine and her loyalties tell us a lot about changing ideas of gender and cultural identity in China.

Podcaster: Lucy

Further Reading

Lan Dong, Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States, Temple University Press, (2011).
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Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry, Yale University Press, (1976).

Chang-Tai Hung, "Female Symbols of Resistance in Chinese Wartime Spoken Drama." Modern China 15 (1989): 149-77.

​Shiamin Kwa and Wilt L. Idema, ed. and trans., Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend, with Related Texts, Hackett, (2010).

​Feng Lan, "The Female Individual and the Empire: A Historicist Approach to Mulan and Kingston's Woman Warrior." Comparative Literature 55 (2003): 229-45.
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Related Content

This episode is part of our Footnoting Disney Series.

Mulan, Disney, (1998).

Mulan, Disney, (2020).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)