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In 1992 Disney’s Aladdin debuted in America. Despite being a commercial success, the film drew the attention of the Anti-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee for its vicious, and, according to Christopher Wise, Associate professor of Islamic and American Studies at the University of Jordan in Amman, “dangerous” portrayal of Arabs, and the Middle East in general. Indeed, Aladdin was thoroughly and blatantly racist, and, while most critics tentatively enjoyed the film, Disney found itself surprised when the film garnered criticism instead of awards (Staninger 65). Eventually Disney agreed to change some of the more offensive lyrics (“I come from a place/ From a far away land/ Where the caravan camels roam/ Where they cut off your ears/ If they don’t like your face/ It’s barbaric, but hey, It’s home.”) to refer to desert heat instead of mutilation (Wise 105). It seems likely therefore, that, when Disney decided to try to break into the Chinese market with its animated feature, Mulan, based on an ancient Chinese poem, they would avoid many of the pitfalls that caused criticism in Aladdin. To break into this huge world market, attests Li Fei in his marketing strategy for Mulan, Disney needed the film to be a cultural success as well as a commercial one. Whether or not Mulan achieved this sort of cultural success is less clear.
Financially, the film fell far short of expected profits, and reeked of poor strategy and cultural misunderstanding. The film was released in China the week after the New Years celebration. Unfortunately for backers, this also happened to be the week of finals for school children across the nation, and a poor time to release a children’s film. Of course, to blame the failure of the film entirely on its release schedule is to ignore something fundamentally more important to a cultural discussion of the film: “I hear the reason’s for [Mulan’s] disastrous performance are twofold: First, there was a problem with the screening slots, and second, the Chinese disliked it.” (Jing 28)
Why the Chinese did not like the film is up for dispute as well, but falls easily into a few categories according to Fei: 1. Much of the population pays little attention to children’s movies, 2. Many people are unwilling to pay full price for an animated film, 3. Pirated copies of the film were already circulating, and 4. Chinese citizens were unhappy seeing a western bastardization of a poem that is a cultural icon.
This bastardization, along with the cultural failure in Aladdin, is a classic example of a phenomenon that Edward Said describes as Orientalism in his groundbreaking 1978 book of the same name. Said describes the “Orient” as a fictitious environment that exists more in the minds of intellectuals and authors than it does in actuality. Indeed, for Said, the entire study of the orient (which conveniently has no counterpart in the east i.e.; Occidentalism) serves to validate racial preconceptions of Westerners, and to set up a system of binary relations (the east is sensuous, superstitious, treacherous and despotic, whereas the west is logical, scientific, and civilized). This expression of the Orient as the Occident’s “Other” then precludes the east from having an identity of its own; it can only reflect in opposites the attitudes and cultures of the West. According to Said’s theory, this sets up a system wherein the West takes on a dominant mode, and the East a submissive one.
While the failure of Mulan’s Chinese release cannot be simplified into an examination of Orientalism, it is clear that while making the film, the creators attempted to a certain extent to avoid repeating Aladdin’s mistakes, especially when dealing with a Chinese government that did not like the idea of Western intrusion on national culture. In fact, for some time it was unclear whether Mulan was going to be allowed into the country at all. As Kathy Maio describes in her review of the film for the New Internationalist:
As I write this, the Chinese Government has still not given its permission for a mainland theatrical release for Mulan (although the film is already a hit in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Asian markets). Chinese officials are engaged, as the Sunday Telegraph put it, in a `wider struggle to suppress foreign-backed interpretations of the country's literary heritage'
Combine the sensitivity of dealing with the Chinese government, which is the gateway to a huge market, and an entity Disney had already alienated with a 1997 film about the Dalai Lama, with the obvious notion that offending people is bad for business, and Mulan clearly has to show some forms of improvement over the festival of stereotypes that was Aladdin (Asian Political News).
Taken on the surface level, the difference between the two films is clear. Aladdin’s lyrics are blatantly racist, and the land of Agrabah (a proximate anagram of Baghdad) is portrayed as a place where everyday citizens swallow swords, dance across coals, and lie on bed of nails for seemingly their own amusement. The average citizens (not the Americanized protagonists who will be discussed later) are clearly caricatures of the type Said describes. Mulan, for the most part, avoids such blatant racism. Though occasionally a character will take on characteristics of the Oriental other, such as the grandmother’s inexplicable superstition, these traits are used to add detail rather than definition to the character. The grandmother in question is much more memorable for her abruptness than for her superstition, and the giant Chien Po will be remembered for his girth rather than his caricatured meditation scene. Furthermore, these instances seem to be the exception rather than the rule, as was the case in Aladdin. The general treatment of all characters, and especially background characters, is much gentler and more politically correct in Mulan than its Middle Eastern counterpart.
This is not to say, however, that Mulan is an unequivocal success in its attempts to avoid Orientalism. Maio observes:
“Obviously, Disney never means to offend anyone. That would be bad business. But even animators and songwriters internalize racism. And the `imagineers' at Disney obviously look to reinforce cultural assumptions and push a few buttons in their audience members, if for no other reason than it's the most efficient way to tell a story.”
This internalized racism does come through in both films, and even with revamped efforts, Mulan is still the product of an American studio for an American audience. Perhaps the clearest example of such Orientalist undertones in either film comes through in its main characters. While they may have different skin colors, and wear different clothes, these Disney characters are fundamentally Americans. Aladdin is modeled after Tom Cruise, M.C. Hammer, and Michael J. Fox, all stunning examples of Middle Eastern culture (McLeod 182). Jasmine’s desires and mannerisms are so close to that of a California teen of the time that it prompted Christian Staninger to refer to her as “the valley girl in veils” (Staninger 65). These characters are then set up in man vs. society conflict wherein Aladdin and Jasmine can only be happy by ridding themselves of the arbitrary laws of a backwards Arabic society.
Once again, Mulan disguises its cultural slant better than its predecessor, but the same elements remain. Disney’s efforts towards improvement are notable in some of the character’s sentiments; her primary goal seems to be to honor her father and her emperor, and clearly reflects the Confucian ideal intended by the original poem (Lan 1). Yet, Mulan is fundamentally an American character in an Oriental setting, which, while less repressive than brutal Agrabah, still reeks of a patriarchal system. Many of her desires seem to revolve around the American ideals of being true to herself and expressing her personality, and when she chimes in during a song: “How about a girl who’s got a brain/ and always speaks her mind?” she finds herself in stark contrast to the expectations of her society.
Mulan’s mixed Chinese and American origins show up perhaps even more strongly in her mannerisms than her motivations. Zhang Yang describes her as a “western lass who grew up eating bread and butter,” (Zhang 26) and another critic scoffed at the way she shrugs her shoulders, and writes her calligraphy horizontally and from left to right instead of vertically, right to left (Renjie 31). In fact, Chinese critics found not only fault, but offense in the way she carries herself: “the victorious Mulan jumps on the emperor, hugs him, and swings him around. Scandalous!” (Renjie 31). Still, some cultural errors are to be expected for the sake of story telling, and even Zhang admits that this Mulan is quite “loveable,” a trait that Disney could scarcely afford to ignore. The film was, after all, still expected to turn profits in an American market. Despite all these shortcomings, the creators did at least go to some lengths to maintain cultural accuracy without sacrificing the story:
It is said that in the original story design, Mulan ‘kisses her father goodbye’ before going to join up. Later, however, Disney learned that daughters in China two thousand years ago would not have ‘kissed’ their father, so the screenplay was modified. In the film, Mulan leaves and ornament from her hair to let her family know that she has gone. This…lets foreign filmgoers see one of the customs of ancient China. (He 24)
Further evidence of Mulan’s attempts at accuracy is evident in the art design of the feature. Once again, this is an area where Aladdin fell far short of expectations. While artists working on the film did go to quite a bit of work to create the look and feel of the Middle East, Agrabah is closer to something out of a European’s fantasy than the Middle East of the real world. This is directly explicable through Said’s work, wherein he describes the inbred, self referencing nature of many Orientalist texts. According to Leslie Felperin, and the studio authorized publication on the making of Aladdin, Agrabah’s look was based primarily on five sources: Persian miniature paintings from the 11th to 16th centuries, Victorian paintings of the East, numerous Coffee table books on the Middle East, Animated Disney films from the 40’s and 50’s, and Alexander Korda’s The Thief of Baghdad (1940). Of these sources, only the miniatures are first hand depictions from Middle Eastern sources, the rest originate in the West, and thus carry with them the preconceptions and prejudices of earlier generations (Felperin 139).
The creators of Mulan tried to recreate more authentically the actual look of the middle kingdom. They hired artists in Taiwan to assist in the creation of the film, and even went so far as to create new colors with “Chinese characteristics.” The emperor’s robes are an authentic “imperial yellow.” (He 24) Zhu Yi, a Chinese student in America recalls actually shedding tears during Mulan’s title sequence, “which was similar to the openings of Creating Turmoil in the Heavenly Palace or The Three Monks.” Zhu was shocked to see such an authentic replication of his native cinema so far from home. The visual style of the film is, especially in the breathtaking smoke effects, “strong on calligraphic lines and often allud[es] to traditional Chinese painting techniques.” (McGreal 12)
Mulan is a long way from perfect in its presentation of Chinese culture, but it also represents a big step forward for Disney. The most blatant traces of racism have, for the most part, vanished. An Orientalist slant still exists, but, as Jill McGreal’s review for Sight and Sound asks, “so what? Kids everywhere will love Mulan precisely for the entertainment that it does offer.” While adults may see the almost unending representations of dragons or the anachronistic use of fireworks as insensitive, the film is targeted towards children, and these glimpses into authentic Chinese culture, cursory as they may be, are more likely to promote an interest in the Middle Kingdom than to create any sort of prejudice in children. Indeed, Christiane Staninger admits that Aladdin was the film that piqued her interest in the Middle East (Staninger 76). “There is no question,” attests Zhu Yi, “that…Mulan is a blending of ancient Chinese culture and modern Hollywood.” Treating it, then, as the blending of cultures that it is, Disney may not have created a perfect representation of the Chinese legend, but in the seven years since Aladdin it certainly made a great deal of progress.