Sunday, April 11, 2010

westernization of mulan

I believe that Disney overly westernized the character Mulan in order to create an entertaining movie in the US. The characters in Mulan and the stereotyping of the Mongols and the weak peasant soldiers was clearly a western interpretation. It is much easier to relate to a rebellious young woman who goes against her culture, but in the end is still accepted and allowed to continue her role in society. The entire chinese culture was westernized and depicted from a western's point of view so that this disney film would attract young american children's interests.
It is definitely more difficult for an average young middle school reader to find similarities with a main character like Ailin than with Mulan. Ailin faces a much stricter society that most young adolescent readers cannot yet comprehend. This novel could greatly benefit young readers if teachers taught students with an emphasis on understanding a culture before understanding that culture's literature. When reading multicultural literature students will better understand the themes and main point if they understand that all cultures are unique and have many differences. Chinese foot binding in one such difference. This practice is some odd mythical practice to most young middle school readers. In order to understand the significance of Ailin's struggle throughout the novel the students need to know what Chinese foot binding meant to the Chinese culture.
The disney movie, Mulan, does not possess as many benefits as reading !!!!!!!!!! because it does not truly represent Chinese culture. Mulan's main purpose is to entertain and sell movies at the same time teaching simple moral lessons and values to young adolescents. The movie does not capture the significance of rebelling in Chinese culture and how drastic those actions can have and the after effects that they can lead to. It is difficult to criticize the historical context of disney movies as they are cartoon animated and intended for young viewers who would not pick up on certain cultural differences that really do exist. If these cultural differences were recognized in both the film industry and taught in schools adolescents would understand more about foreign cultures and foreign literature.