- Inclusion Advocate
(Poem) Mulan: Symbol of Independent Women in East Asia
Updated: Jul 21, 2020
Author: Zhaobo Wang; Chief Editor: Bincheng Mao

Source: Walt Disney Studio
Mulan, [mu lʌn], the much-anticipated Disney movie, has been canceled worldwide due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. As one of the most successful Disney characters, Mulan has accompanied a generation of people.
Mulan became a great icon in the US within past decades, but she has been the symbol of feminism in China for more than 1500 years.
Despite that we have no concrete evidence showing who exactly Mulan was, her literary presence began during the Northern Wei Dynasty (368-534), a regime that once controlled northern China. She first appeared in The Song of Mulan (put in Yue Fu Poetry by Maoqian Guo) in the late Northern Dynasties. According to The Song of Mulan, Mulan was first just an ordinary traditional Chinese woman all of whose duty is to do the housework:
Days go as rooster sings
Mulan stays home spinning
However, with the warfare between the Northern Wei and Rouran Khaganate being more and more fierce, the emperor of the Northern Wei decided to conscript more soldiers, therefore, one of Mulan’s family must serve the Army. For the sake of Mulan’s father was too old and she had no brothers old enough, she decided to pretend to be a man and join the
Army:
Last evening Mulan saw the military posters
saying that the emperor was conscripting soldiers
On the list, thousands of names appear
so is her father’s
The poor old man owns no old sons
and Mulan owns no elder brothers
Buying a steed and armours
taking the place of her father
During Mulan’s military career she fought bloody wars and many of her partners never return home:
Through countless fights return few
Mulan the warrior on her way home
Winning great honors, Mulan refused to be promoted to be a powerful officer but went back home to accompany her family:
The great contributor must be rewarded
golds and jewels can’t buy heroine’s loyalty
Khan asked what else you wanted
Mulan said no more she needed
May the steed run for miles
Send me back to see my family
Finally, Mulan could be a girl again: wearing dresses and making cosmetics:
I shall wear the armours no more
dress on my body light the world
Combing my hair by the window
making cosmetics looking at the mirror
Mulan’s beauty astonished her partners who didn’t even know Mulan was a woman:
I step out to see my partners
the beauty of mine makes them bewildered
Having fought against the enemy for battles
they don’t even know Mulan is a girl
This is Mulan’s unusual life described by The Mulan Song, and at the end of the song the author used a metaphor to voice for feminism:
When there are two rabbits running shoulder to shoulder
how can you recognize which is male and which is female

Source:
The Song of Mulan
History of Wei Dynasty, Shou Wei