I’ve always liked to read a good adventure fantasy story, with a young hero going forth and slaying dragons, overthrowing tyrants, and conquering evil mages, and to save the princess in distress who needs a hero. Never doubting that you’d crack at the tail end of the race. Most boys would find that shameful, even if they would end up freezing.
What many boys fail to acknowledge until they are older, is how even grown men would crack. If you are to take a look at the picture of the Shell-Shocked Soldier from 1916, you could see what adventure and battle could do to a man. And concerns and fears entering a battle that could tear you apart can overwhelm you, and the soldiers around you. So what do the soldiers do to raise morale to help them confront the threat? Often, these men would sing songs.
This is something that does happen in the Disney Movie “Mulan”, when Shang’s troops respond to an urgent message (falsified by Mushu, but details, details.) that requests them to the front, and unfortunately, arriving less than a day late, leading to the ambush scene.
The song begins with the men trudging along, complaining about everything, and we can tell that the thought of running would cross their minds. It’s only Ling that opts to bring about a song (Yes, already started, but hey, what are we going to do about it.) about imagining a girl they want to get together with once they get back home. And even Ling’s lyrics does imply that he’s concerned about going into battle.
He starts singing about a superficial, traditional woman he’d want to look at, describing her as “I want her paler than the moon, With eyes that shine like stars”. However, looking deeper into this, we can see that he isn’t just imagining a battlefield, but also the thought of walking into a ravaged town, and women who have been… well, forced upon. They are about to see the ugliest vision in their time, and he would much prefer seeing something or someone beautiful, and to a soldier, what is more beautiful than a woman in her full splendor.
Yao then sings that “My girl will marvel at my strength, Adore my battle scars”, which implies that he wants to impress women, and wants the full attention of a woman he’ll marry. It also implies that he wants to be respected for his sacrifice, and his service. It also can imply that he is scared he won’t measure up, and that everyone back home will think little of him. In short, he wants to be adored by a woman, who he’ll adore right back. (He is a LITTLE tsundere in many ways.)
The song then cuts to Chien Po who sings “I couldn’t care less what she’ll wear Or what she looks like, It all depends on what she cooks like Beef, pork, chicken, hmm”, and for those who understand love languages, it is quite obvious what Chien Po’s love language is: food. He feels loved when someone cooks for him, and he is quite affectionate to the others, likely wanting to share food with those he cares for. And being the large guy, it’s also probably what helps him feel safe.
Beauty, respect and nurturing is what they are singing about, and three traits that men do love in a woman, and it is perfectly natural. They don’t want to see the ugly that war brings, they don’t want to die disgracefully, and they don’t want to die or be treated horribly. They are realizing that they can’t go back to the safety of the arms of their mothers. They are men now, no longer boys, and their coming of age is a baptism of blood.
The next stanza starts talking about the simple life back in their villages, and what they think girls might like, and they sing that they miss that the most from going to train. They developed a great sense of camaraderie, but they bemoan their current lot. And this is essentially an acknowledgement that their lives will no longer be the same, and they are imagining themselves coming back as heroes, which is how many soldiers imagine themselves to be when they leave for war.
The following one is a bit of a silly one poking fun at Mulan herself, describing what kind of woman she is, when all three others dismiss her for it as who wants a nag who always says wants on her mind anyways?
We can also contrast this song to the earlier one “Honor to Us All”, which sings about Mulan’s duties as a woman in society, and even in this song it speaks that men have their duties to bear arms at the front, showing that women also needs to care for the men of the nation, and the nation itself.
The message here is that men are there to protect the nation and culture, and women are there to care for and nurture the nation and culture.
women are there to care for and nurture the nation and culture.
That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with modern women. they neither care for or nurture the nation and culture. All they seem to care about and nurture is themselves, usually at the cost of the nation and culture.
Only Disney animation I ever really liked. Nice tribute!