Mulan is the next big release from Disney coming soon on Hotstar Disney Plus. The story is timeless saga of a young warrior women defending the imperial China from Northern (read Mongolian) Invaders. The script perfectly to the saga of a deserving Chinese empire rising up to an impossible challenge and meeting it head on – against all odds.
In view of Hongkong protestors urging the world to boycott Mulan, here are five potential reasons for Indians to downvote Mulan on likes of IMDB.
Mulan has been refurbished to suit imperialism and Xi’s agenda
Mulan is based on a tale that’s been evolving for over a thousand years. Earliest printed version comes from 12th century as ballad of Mulan with references to a story based in 5th or 6th century. Cut short to more than 800 years later, the story is about a young female defending the Chinese pride.
It’s the same pride that believes all of Tibet, Mongolia and even much of Pacific is essentially Han Chinese. Any attempt to promote this movie is playing into a President Xi’s nationalism.
Mulan is about quelling attackers against empire, Its Chinese from stopping India from claiming Tibet
The Chinese propaganda has all along been that Indian have invaded into Chinese territory all along Tibet India border. The fact that historically Tibet was a buffer between India and China, has no place in Chinese version of events. Nor its forceful occupation of Tibet in 1959 is represented as a drive for unification of China instead of the fact that Tibet was always an independent, sovereign nation
Again promoting this movie is subscribing to the Chinese idea of false victimhood and misguided quest for glory.
Mulan is all about Han Chinese without any respect for minorities
The leading lady, a Han Chinese, in service of a Han emperor fights for the empire. In the modern-day China where the Mongolian Silk Read is Chinese, no minority has any role to play. It does not matter that the original story was about defending Northern Wei dynasty which itself spoke a dialect of Mongol language. The fact that orginal Mulan was set in a much more multi-cultural China has been overlooked by Disney to capture the lucrative Chinese entertainment market
Then there is the Honkong’s Plea
While Indians hardly ever question China’s writ over Hongkong, maybe they should. Hongkong was handed over to China by UK on condition of preserving her democratic institutions. A system of one nation two administrations.
Today, however, China wants that all lucrative international agreement with Hongkong to be preserved as a separate while ensuring the internal laws are more aligned with Communist dictators based out of Beijing. Hongkong’s independence is all but extinguished and the leading lady of Mulan – Liu Yifei, herself a US citizen – has called for more PRC control over the city state and has justified Hongkong police’s handling of protests.
Only time will tell if Indians will rally against Mulan – but if they did, the world will have to watch out for Indian soft power in direct conflict with China.
