1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Hua Mulan is an ancient heroine who is well-known to every household in China. It originates from a folk narrative poem The Balled of Mulan in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Balled of Mulan starts with ”Tsiek#8233;tsiek#8233;and#8233;again#8233;tsiek#8233;tsiek, Mulan#8233;weaves,#8233;facing#8233;the#8233;door.” and tells a story that a woman called Hua Mulan who disguised herself as a male soldier to take her father#8217;s place in the conscription army since she worried about her father was too old to fight with enemies and she had no older brothers. And then after years of wars, Mulan was offered a high official position for her great military exploit by Khan, but she declined the chance that she could achieve success and win recognition and chose to return her home to take care of her old parents. When her former comrades visited her at her home, they were shocked to see her dressed as a woman. The personality, loyalty and filial spirit that Hua Mulan reflected is exactly the key of Chinese cultural tradition.

In 1998, based on the image of Hua Mulan in The Balled of Mulan, American Walt Disney Pictures spent about one hundred million dollars and created an 88-minutes-long animated movie Mulan with the effort of more than 2,000 artists for eight years. Even an American film critic called it as ”The Best Disney Animated Feature”. Mulan was widely praised around the world after its appearing. In the movie , the director showed us a western Mulan who is independent, unconstraint, brave and kind. Achieving success by her own effort, from which we could see Mulan#8217;s individuality spirit which is properly the core of American culture.

The multicultural collision and exchange is unavoidable when telling the Chinese historical stories under the Western discourse, no matter with what angels.

1.2 Need for the study

Practically speaking, since the animated movie Mulan has made a hit, by careful analysis of the work, we could learning something that could benefit our cultural export strategies. Mulan is Chinese traditional cultural character and American could make the film successful is not just about coincidence or luck. Because when they were creating the feature they not just accepted and imitated the original image blindly, instead they added many fresh elements into the role. And that#8217;s exactly the reason why Mulan could be so popular, which could help to improve the Chinese culture industry development and discard the dross and select the essence of original cultural tradition, for instance, woman could also be independent instead of the old ideas as the Confucius said. What#8217;s more, this kind of analysis could improve the intercultural communication between China and America. And China could also absorb the experience of foreign countries#8217; good literature when writing new woks.

Theoretically speaking, this comparative study of the Balled of Mulan and Disney animated movie Mulan can give scholars more support of the differences between Chinese culture and American culture. It based on the mutual understanding of each other between the cultural practitioner from the two countries and made some new progress which in some sense makes a chance for American and even people all over the world could have a chance to look at China and try to learn about Chinese culture.