Photo by Sam Howzit

By Melanie Mar Chow

Growing up, if you asked me to identify women role models, I wouldn’t be able to name any except for Helen Keller or Anne Sullivan, two women that my neighbors who were sisters would fight to role-play.

Raising my daughter, I prayed for Asian role models. At any early age, she reminded us of her likes and dislikes. “Again, again” she’d say, be it going higher on a swing or eating ice cream. That command came with tiny hands thrusting her Mulan movie into my face. Why was I delighted to play it again?

Disney’s 1998 retelling of the eastern legend Mulan featured a positive Asian role model with a supportive dad, Fa Zhou, and mom, Fa Li. Watching it together, I loved that my daughter saw this movie’s portrayal of women. Fa Li modeled concern for her daughter on a trip with her grandma to the matchmaker. This mother begged her husband to go after Mulan as she left at night to serve the army in his place via the family horse. The loving father knew that if he did go, he would put Mulan at risk.

Tom Bancroft, a supervising artist for the movie character Mushu, shared in a March 2013 Christian Post interview that “the theme of the film is ‘be true to yourself.’ That’s what I wanted for my daughter to see in Mulan: someone who changed her world, without changing herself.” Bancroft also noted “even Christians need to be true to themselves and not be ‘saved’ by their friends but be true to their own lives.” Mulan strays from ‘typical Disney’ as she is not saved by a prince, rather she saves all of China by her determination to be true to her heart.

The movie also provided fodder for gender role discussions. It offered men as warriors fighting for their country, as Mulan’s dad attempted. Or with General Li’s son Shang, was it by ability or lineage that he was appointed captain? The movie doesn’t resolve, but rather depicts, his struggle. For women, Mulan explores the contrast of stereotypes. The male army recruits pine for wives with pale skin, those with eyes like the moon, or good cooks. Mulan’s disguised voice challenges the stereotype asking the value of a wife with a “brain, who always speaks her mind?” The men’s quick response of “nah!” implied they sought wives who were submissive to their needs, not equal partners.

As we watched Mulan again and again, three thoughts were impressed upon me. First, I was encouraged for me, my daughter, and all women to fight for the right to be the people we really are. Asian singer Lea Salonga sang of Mulan’s inward search to aspire to live as the person she was meant to be. Regardless of gender, she sought to be true to her inventive/creative self to fight though, in Disney style, had the assistance of animal sidekicks (Mushu and Crickee).

Next, I saw that we women should employ God’s gifts and experiences for His honor, not because of gender. As the daughter of a sonless father, Mulan wanted to bring him honor. “Mulan” means “magnolia blossom.” The artistic flower rendering created a backdrop as her father tells her “look, this one’s late. I’ll bet that when it blossoms it will be the most beautiful of all.” Fa Zhou knew her strength and ability. And she did bring honor to China. But most important was her decline of the Emperor’s invitation to service and instead going home to deliver the sword of the Hun leader and the crest of the Emperor. Her dad overlooks the gifts and tells her “the greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.” He finally overlooked his expectations as she surpassed his. (Fathers – this is the best role you can live for your daughters)

Lastly, I want to exhort women that although you might fail to fulfill an assigned role, you are not a failure. Mulan doesn’t change herself but disguises herself for protection. She joins the army in place of her ailing father and resourcefully saves her captain more than once. The Emperor affirms her ability to live up to her name, noting “the blossom that flowers in adversity is most rare and beautiful of all.” The Emperor’s recognition gives Captain Shang an excuse to visit and return her father’s helmet, eliciting a dinner invitation. Noteworthy is the movie’s diminished role of anxious suitor. Instead of love-interest, Shang stands alongside Mulan as she learns her capabilities, then awkwardly affirms that “she fights good.” The movie ends with their relationship uncertain.

Now in 2017, Disney provides another heroic Asian model for daughters. Moana, a Pacific Islander on screen seeking to be true to self and follow dreams with the support of mother and father. It doesn’t hurt, like Mulan, to have a spunky, inspirational grandmother.

Though 90% of Disney films exclude women from the traditional hero/heroine role, I remind my daughter that Jesus is our hero and of his call for us to be in roles no longer determined by gender. Galatians 3:28 reminds us that the work of Jesus doesn’t focus on us being male or female, but rather on other roles that we are called to, which are often not easy. Something we need to be reminded of again and again.

Note: See Disney’s Mulan but don’t see Mulan 2, as a different production company brought totally opposite lessons from the first.

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California.