The Orientalism In Disney Movie Mulan

Edward W. Said states that orientalism is a way of thinking. It is built on the distinctionof ontology and epistemology between the East and the West. All the essentialist statementswhich take the basic dichotomy of the East and West as a starting point to talk about the EastAsians, Eastern customs, the East Mind, and the fate of the East belongs to orientalism.1Orientalism exists in Western literature, music, architecture, drama, and is widely presented inderivative cultural industries such as movie and television works. Origination of the filmcoincides with the global prevalence of Western imperialism and colonialism. Throughout theWestern movies, there are numerous examples of orientalism. In this paper, Disney’s animatedfilm Mulan is taken as an example to reveal the orientalism in the work which helps to arousethe awareness of the cultural hegemony in the new era.Disney’s animation industry is a culture industry. With its strong economic strength,advanced producing technology and developed global distribution network, Disneydemonstrates its hidden power behind the discourse of capital. Disney’s animated movieMulan orientalizes and Americanizes the Chinese culture in the production of others. Thetraditional Chinese culture contained in original Mulan has been replaced by Americanmainstream culture. In this process, the third world culture is infiltrated and intervened bypowerful cultural hegemony and is suffering marginalization.2From different aspects, the thesis analyzes the details of the movie to reveal thewesterners’ misreading, tampering and integrating. This coincides with the mirror that Eastmentions in Said’s Orientalism theory. The first chapter starts the analysis with theenvironmental settings in the movie, including settings of natural environment and livingenvironment. In the second chapter, the research focuses on a variety of movie props andartifacts used in the movie. The use of props is the primary means to present stories andbackgrounds in details. The third chapter of the thesis analyzes the persons in this work whichinclude character relationships, positions and social roles they occupy. Finally, the mainpurpose of the analysis is to show that though the film originated from the Chinese literarywork, it eventually expresses the American customs and values. And it proposes that in today’s multipolar and multiculturalism development, people are expected to establishequality for cultural communication. When people are developing cultural exchanges, they’dbetter promote the characteristics and advantages of traditional Chinese culture.