Mulan in China and America: From Premodern to Modern

Abstract

Mulan legend has traveled from Chinese culture to America undergoing the process of cultural filtration. Compared with Mulan in classical Chinese literature, the system of representations behind Mulan in America has undergone variation. But how and why does it vary? And what is the significance of the variation? This paper is going to analyze the cause of the variation of Mulan by reviewing the changes and development in both China and America from the perspective of the Variation Theory of Comparative Literature. This paper claims that Mulan has developed into a new system of representations via cultural filtering and authors’ reinterpreting when traveling to America. Yet, the cultural codes behind Mulan that have variated do not merely reveal the differences between Chinese and American culture but more importantly the difference between premodern and modern ethics, between ancient China and the modern West.