Dippel 1

Sydney Dippel
Professor Kendra Parker
English 113-03 The Wonderful World of Disney?
13 April 2015
Essay 2 Critical Summary
In Cultural deformations and reformations: a case study of Disneys Mulan in English
and Chinese, Mingwu Xu and Chuanmao Tian explore Disneys use of The Mulan Ballad and
its portrayal of Chinese culture. The authors discuss how Disney uses iconic stories and legends
from civilizations from all over the world in its movies. While the Disney Corporation alters
these stories to localize the context to the American people, there is still some cultural
authenticity lost in translation. The authors then examine what they refer to as the Disney
formula, which includes four key elements that are present in most every Disney movie. The first
component is the concept of individualism, a Western notion that is usually not consistent with
the culture of the original story. In the case of Mulan, her behavior is so far outside the norm of
Chinese culture that the movie seems to suggest that it is acceptable to act against the publics
interest for ones gratification. The second element of the formula is the triumph of good over
evil, in which the evil villains perish and the good characters live happily ever after. In the end,
the good characters end up defeating the evil in the story and walk away with riches, power, and
happiness. Young romance is another factor of the Disney formula. Even in Mulan, a film in
which the heroine takes matters into her own hands and defeats the Huns, she still finds her
Prince Charming in Captain Li Shang at the end of the film. The final component of the
formula is the presence of an animal sidekick to the main characters. This character serves as a
comic relief to the older audience and gives the younger audience someone to relate to. Next, the
authors discuss the transculturation of Disney and the implications this could have on societies
around the world. Transculturation is a process in which one culture is transformed by another in
the interest of self-aggrandizement. According to Xu and Tian, the Disney Corporation adapts
the stories it borrows from other cultures by stripping them of their original culture,
domesticating the story, and sometimes even universalizing it all together to make the story more
general. The authors argue that this process degrades the story and insults the culture it came
from by separating the two in order to make the movie more profitable. The values and
stereotypes that Disney presents to its viewers are concerning to some critics because the
younger generation is being fed a hybridized culture that looks much like their own, would may
lead to cultural imperialism in the future.
Growing up with Disney movies, like Mulan for example, I did not consider the negative
effects of the culture loss that may come with these movies. I thought it was authentic because of
the iconic Chinese landmarks present in the movie, such as the Great Wall and the willow trees.
However, Xu and Tian bring up excellent points about the skewed worldview that many
American children are being fed on a daily basis. In order to avoid the development of cultural
imperialism within Americas youth, analytical articles like this one are necessary to make
people think about what they are watching. One issue I found with the argument in this article is
that I think some degree of localization to the audiences culture is necessary. In order for an
audience to truly connect with a movie and actually appreciate a story, the viewers must be able
to relate to some aspect of the movie. Without a certain amount of cultural comparison, the
audience would just be left in the dust while the film moves on without them. The tone of this
article suggests that Xu and Tian think that any cultural meshing would be detrimental to the
original story.

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Work Cited
Xu, Mingwu and Tian, Chuanmao. Cultural deformations and reformations: a case study of
Disneys Mulan in English and Chinese. Critical Arts 27.2 (2013): 182-210. Online.