文化关照下的花木兰.doc

The Transformation of Mulan:A Comparison between the Original Version and the Hollywood Version摘要：花木兰的故事源自于北朝时期的乐府民歌木兰辞，作为中国历史上著名的女扮男装，代父从军的女子，其事迹流传了千百年，影响深远。然而，美国迪斯尼公司发行的动画片Mulan,以美国的文化取向来诠释木兰辞中的精神内核，将这个国家儒家文化背景下的“孝女故事”改写成好莱坞语境中的“女英雄” 的故事，在赚取巨额利润的同时传播其特有的文化观念。本人通过对中西不同文化背景下所构筑的木兰形象的分析来探讨中西方文化间的差异。关键词：比较文化；忠孝；个人主义；女性意识I. IntroductionMulan is a famous Chinese heroine who takes her fathers position to fight against the Huns out of filialness. The legend remains alive and passes from generation to generation through various formsstories, ballads, poems, movies etc. In 1998, Disney Company even adapted it to an animation. Its great success all over the world made the story of Mulan a global legend.For a long time, Mulan has been universally acclaimed as a typical traditional Chinese female character that possesses such good virtues as filialness, courage and patriotism. However, Disney granted Mulan a brand new image which is far away from our usual thoughts. To meet the main stream of American culture, namely Individualism and feminism, Mulan was characterized as an independent, ambitious, and competent role. Such transformation of Mulans image aroused some domestic scholars attention. Till now, they have done much research about this topic. But many of them just focus on the differences of the Mulans image in the two versions instead of probing into the cause of the differences. To a large extent, the transformation of Mulans image from the ballad to the movie can be viewed as a conversation between traditional Chinese culture and American culture. Therefore, this thesis attempts to compare the images of Mulan in these two versions and delve into the cause of the difference. II. The Image Transformation of Mulan In Two Versions2.1 The traditional image in the Chinese versionThe original version of “the Ballad of Mulan” was written in Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) in the form of “Yuefu”. According to this version, Mulan takes her fathers place to fight the invading Huns out of filialness. Since her father is old and frail, and she doesnt have any grown-up brothers, Mulan stands out courageously under the disguise of a male appearance to fight against the enemy and protect the country for 12 years without giving away her true gender. After years of hardships, the battle ends up as a success. The emperor grants soldiers money land and title to show his thanks. But Mulan only demands a horse, on which she could ride back home safe and sound. On her arriving home, Mulan reveals her female gender to other soldiers, which completely astonishes them. Mulans image in the “Yuefu” version has long been regarded as a perfect nonesuch of a heroine who possesses the qualities as follows: 2.2 The modern image in the Hollywood VersionIn 1998, Disney company released the cartoon movie entitled Mulan which created a great success across the world. Based on “The Ballad of Mulan”, this appealing movie reinvents the story of a young Chinese maiden Mulan disguising herself and joining the Imperial Army in her fathers place after she is rejected by the local matchmaker. With the help of the sidekick, Mushu, a wise-cracking dragon, Mulan survives the training camp. Weeks later, in the fight of Tung Show Pass, Mulan comes up with a novel idea of causing an avalanche, which brings the army to victory and saves Captain Li Shang. But, she is wounded, which reveals her real gender. Mulan is abandoned by the army. When Mulan decides to go back home with Mushu, she finds the Huns survive in the past battle and plans to take a revenge. She decides to risk everything in order to save her country and she wins at last with her wit and efforts. Mulan does bring great honor to her family, become a hero in her time and find the romantic love eventually. In this new version of Mulans legend, the image of Mulan has been changed a lot and endued with the following new features. III. The reasons for the transformationFrom the analyses mentioned above, its obvious that the image of Mulan has undergone the great change from the ancient version “The ballad of Mulan” to the cartoon movie Mulan. Such transformation is largely caused by the differences between Chinese culture and American one. The central philosophy of ancient China is collectivism which means the collective nature of Chinese value: respect tradition, authority, social norms, and etc. Based on this ideology, traditional Chinese woman are required to obey many strict rules, such as the three obedience and the four virtues and the three cardinal guides and five constant virtues. These rules demand woman to take care of parents, obey husbands, nurture children at home and do all the house works inside, while men are supposed to work outside, doing things like ploughing in the fields, or defending against the enemies to protect the country. On the contrary, America is found on individualism which stresses individual expression, individual value, freedom, equality, and etc. Therefore, women in America are taught to be enterprising and independent ever since the childhood. They are permitted to enjoy the same rights as the men, and get the same opportunity to pursue and realize the self-value. These cultural differences can be easily found in the two versions of Mulan. This transformation can be easily discerned from a cultural perspective: Mulan in the ballad is viewed by Chinese people as a traditional Chinese woman who does house work inside the house such as weaving. As soon as the war ends, she goes back home immediately to continue her female role without hesitation. Also, the author only emphasizes on the feelings Mulan holds for her parents in the process of war instead of on the detailed record of the battle, which also shows her strong Chinese traditional value. However, in Disney version Mulan is characterized as a free-minded woman full of creative ideas and energy. She determines to join the army in her fathers place to defend the country, at the same time, realizes her self-value after she has been harshly criticized by local matchmaker, Thus she goes, and fulfills her dream in the end.IV. Conclusion In China, Mulans story has been rewritten many a time by writers, filmmakers, dramatists, and storytellers, etc. These versions together creates a splendid image of Mulan, a dutiful and courage lady. Disneys touch makes the ancient Chinese folktale move forward towards the whole world with fresh images as an independent individual and a competent female, which conveys the mainstream of American culture, that is, individualism and feminism. The transformation from the ballad to the movie can be viewed as a dialogue between Chinese and American culture in forms of cultural integrations and conflicts. Whats more, the transformation reflects cultural globalization and localization through which different cultures can achieve advancement in the era of multi-culture.Bibliography1Cook, Barry & Tony Bancroft. MulanM. California: Burbank, 1998.2Ding Zuxin. Chinese poetryM. Shenyang: Liaoning