Disney Mulan

Cultural deformations and reformulations: a case study of Disney’s Mulan in English and Chinese Mingwu Xu and Chuanmao Tian

Abstract The article first introduces the 1998 Disney production of the animated film, Mulan, and suggests that the film is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, especially on The Mulan Ballad . It discusses the cultural adaptations in the production of the film through various methods, such as additions, omissions, specifications, generalisations, explicitations, and so on. It focuses on the Chinese translation of the film, examining the cultural restorations and reformulations in the target text on the linguistic level by means of various domesticating and foreignising methods. Finally, it discusses and explores the bidirectional transfer between American and Chinese cultures, cultures, holding holding that there are intracultural and intercultural intercultural transfers, transfers, and that the establishment of a cultural repertoire is, in some sense, dependent on cultural borrowings and rewritings which will give rise to cultural deformations and reformulations. transfer, deformation, Disney Disney,, Mulan, reformulation Keywords: Chinese film dubbing, cultural transfer,

Introduction The audiovisual (AV) industry in the United States (US) exercises a worldwide inuence inasmuch as its products are consumed on such a scale, often through audiovisual translation (A (AVT), VT), namely interlingual subtitling and dubbing. American Mingwu Xu is a professor of translation and interpreting and vice dean of School of Foreign Languages at Huazhong University Uni versity of Science Sc ience and Technology (HUST), Wuhan City Cit y, P.R. P.R. China. xumingwu@ mail.hust.edu.cn. Chuanmao Tian is professor of the School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, P.R. P.R. China. Please contact con tact the corresponding correspond ing author Chuanmao Chuanm ao Tian, at [email protected] ISSN 0256-0046/Online 1992-6049 pp. 182–210 © Critical Arts Projects & Unisa Press

27 (2) 2013 DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2013.783956

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Cultural deformations and reformulations

lms, including animated lms, have frequently based their themes on iconic treasures from world civilisations, particularly from Greek, English, Arabian and Chinese cultures. In other words, they often seek inspiration in plot design from literary classics, religious canons, and folk tales in these cultures, such as Aladdin (Musker & Clements 1992), Troy (Peterson 2004), King Arthur (Fuqua (Fuqua 2004), Kung Fu Panda (Stevenson & Osborne 2008), Robin Hood (Scott 2010), and so on. It is interesting to explore the contact between American culture and other cultures in the design and manufacture of American AV products, and their translation and dissemination in other parts of the world. Mulan, a 1998 Disney-produced animated lm directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft, which draws on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan to construct its plot framework, has achieved tremendous success with children around the world. It was introduced back to China in a dubbed version in 1999. The production and translation of the lm involves two encounters between American and Chinese cultures in both Disney’s adaptation of the Chinese legend of Mulan and the Chinese translation of Disney’s Mulan. The following paragraphs examine the process of bi-directional cultural transfer through the case study.

Literature review As a global media giant gi ant – second only on ly to Time-Warner-AOL Time-Warner-AOL in the world – the Disney Corporation is one of the major shapers of American and global popular culture, and much has been written about its power and inuence (see Artz 2004). Many scholars have devoted their research to studying Disney’s cultural production (especially of its animated features) from a variety of perspectives, such as cultural studies (Chan 2002; Di Giovanni 2003; Wasko 2001), gender studies (Hoerner 1996), politics (Hiassen 1998), education (Pewewardy 1996), aesthetics (Ricker 1996), discourse analysis (Smoodin 1994), psychoanalysis (Berland 1982), and lm studies, which can be subdivided into lm production (Croce 1990), lm distribution (Edgerton & Jackson 1996), lm reception (Tang 2008) and character analysis (Benton 1995; Giroux 1999; Moellenhoff 1989). Below is a review of the literature relevant to the current study.

The Disney formula Animation is central to Disney’s economic strength and cultural inuence, and its great success owes much to an underlying formula which has long been cherished by the corporation (Artz 2004; Chan 2002; Wasko 2001). This formula generally includes individualism, the triumph of good over evil, young romance and the use of animals as sidekicks.

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Mingwu Xu and Chuanmao Tian

Individualism is a key theme of Disney animation, always linked with the story’s hero or heroine. In Mulan, for example, it is almost the mere effort of the heroine that overcomes the Huns and saves China. The heroes or heroines are, in addition, privileged individuals. Examples of this include the sultan changing the laws of royal matrimony; John Smith ordering the arrest of a governor; and Mulan’s father, father, emperor and royal suitor forgiving her indiscretions (Artz 2004). Disney seems to imply,, through its animated stars, that acting against the public interest in one’s search imply for individual gratication is natural, legitimate and desirable, and that the future of the world revolves around the individual, self-interested actions of naturally superior elites (ibid.). It should be pointed out here that the myth of the individual is not conned to America. America. It can also be seen in countless tales in European history, such as Greek and Roman mythologies and literary works of the Renaissance, and it was consolidated in the American myth of the frontier, as in novels by James Fenimore Cooper and Owen Wister. Individualism also materialises in other cultures, such as traditional Chinese culture which holds that ‘heroes make history’, as manifested in records. Disney’s embrace of the myth of the hero is in line Sima Qian’s Historical records with its production goal of catering to both local and global audiences (Chan 2002; Tang 2008). In Disney’s dream world, visual metaphor persists. Characters are simply either good or bad. It is easy for the audience to make a distinction between them through their stereotyped images, dialogues and actions. Good characters such as Simba, the sultan, Ariel and Pocahontas have big eyes and round cheeks and are drawn in curves, smooth, round, soft, bright and with European features, while villains such as Scar,, Jafar, the Hun, Ratcliffe and Ursula are drawn with sharp angles, oversized, and Scar often darkly (Artz 2004). Bad actions are punished; good ones rewarded. Disney’s heroes are always stronger, stronger, smarter and victorious in the nal conict earning riches, power or happiness, while the villains cannot win and are doomed to suffer suffer calamity calamity or death (ibid.). Good ultimately prevails over evil (Chan 2002). Another trademark technique Disney tends to employ is young romance or romantic escape (Artz 2004; Chan 2002). For example, Mulan disguises herself as a man to join the army without informing her family in advance (itself a recurrent trick played by many Disney characters, such as Aladdin assuming a false identity and Tarzan conspiring to violate jungle law [Artz 2004]). In her adventure to seek self-fullment and bring honour to her family, though, Mulan nds her ‘Prince Charming’, Captain Li Shang. In Disney’s fantasy world, the aides to the hero or heroine are invariably friendly and cute animals, adding appeal for young viewers and comic relief for older ones (ibid.). The strength of using animals as sidekicks is underlined by its converse: Sleeping Beauty (Clark, Larson, Geronimi & Reitherman 1959), the only Disney feature without an animal sidekick, failed miserably at the box ofce. Besides the formulaic routines discussed above, Disney also follows other

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rules, such as emotional, catchy songs; humorous jokes; and assorted supporting cast and character voices performed by lm stars (Chan 2002).

Transculturation in Disney animation Disney’s animations are not original stories but are based on widely-accepted cultural Disney’s myths and morals (Artz 2004). This may also be viewed as part of the Disney formula. Disney tends to innovate, enhance and modify the fairy tales, legends and ctions it has borrowed from other cultures in its production of animated lms (Artz 2004; Wasko 2001). Consequently Consequently,, cultural transformation arises in the animations. Joseph Chan (2002) calls this ‘transculturation’ ‘transculturation’:: a process whereby a culture is transformed by another for self-aggrandiseme self-aggrandisement. nt. It is analogous to the conceptions of cultural adaptation, acculturation and assimilation in cross-cultural communication. As demonstrated by Disney animations, transculturation involves both organisational routines and experimentation through which the foreign culture is decontextualised, essentialised, recontextualised, domesticated and sometimes universalised. The adaptation of foreign stories adds variety to Disney’s productions, giving it a more global image; and it reduces the risk of production because these stories have stood the test of time in their home cultures (ibid.). Chan (2002) points out that to be persuasive, all stories have to be contextualised. The more contextualised they are, the more believable they will be; in Americanising a story, it has to be essentialised and stripped of its context, with its core elements identied. Then the story is recongured and recontextualised. In Mulan, the Chinese avour is preserved, achieved by situating the new story amidst unique cultural icons such as the Great Wall, willow trees and pavilions, Tiananmen Square, and so on. It becomes localised (i.e., Americanised) and globalised through additions of hyperindividualism, romance, feminism and other Western and modern elements, as evidenced when Mushu reads a modern paper, when Mulan cooks sausage and fried egg for breakfast, when the ancestral spirits rock to Western Western music, as well as Eddie Murphy voice-acting for Mushu in a street-smart lingo (ibid.). Transculturation gives rise to cultural hybridisation and may cause intercultural conict. The latter is evidenced by the fact that Disney animation has angered several ethnic groups in the recent past: Arab-Americans, Arab-Americans, with the lyrics of an Alladin song; native Americans, Americans, who felt Pocahontas (Gabriel & Goldberg 1995) was unnecessarily sexualised; and blacks, who took issue with the interracial makeup of voice talent in The Lion King (Allers (Allers & Minkoff 1994).

Previous studies on Disney’s Mulan So far, a number of papers and works have been devoted to research on Disney’s Mulan. The online CNKI database indicates that in China over 20 articles have

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focused on the lm from different perspectives, including cultural communication and semiotics, transculturation, narratology, postcolonialism, feminism, and so on.1 Some of the most relevant of this work is discussed here. Zhongshun He (1999) and Renjie Zhang (1999) examine the cultural transformation in Disney’s Mulan by comparing the lm to the Chinese legend of Mulan. The former claims that the lm conforms closely to ancient Chinese customs and culture, while the latter argues that the lm-makers are ignorant of Chinese history and character, and insists the characters do not have normal appearances or exhibit appropriate Chinese behaviour. Joseph Chan (2002) explores the lm by following the approach of transculturation. He believes that while the core narrative of Mulan has been retained, several elements have been altered through the recontextualisation of the narrative. Some Chinese elements deemed irrelevant to the original story, for instance, have been added so as to strengthen the Chinese cultural avour – the signication of China – and some non-Chinese (but American American and global) elements are added in the lm in the localisation and globalisation of the story. Georgette Wang and Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh (2005) use Disney’s Mulan to illustrate the trend of globalisation and hybridisation in cultural products. They hold that hybridisation is not merely the mixing, blending and synthesising of different elements that ultimately form a culturally faceless whole, but that in the course of hybridisation, cultures often generate new forms and make new connections with one another. Jun Tang Tang (2008) explores several issues on Mulan, namely globalisation, cultural authenticity, the reception of the lm in mainland China and the translation of the lm. Based on the analysis of the Chinese version of Mulan, he argues that a subtitle translator is likely to adopt target-oriented (i.e., domesticating) rather than sourceoriented (i.e., foreignising) strategies if s/he chooses to conform to the audience’s expectations and preferences. Yin Jing (2011) adopts the theory of articulation to investigate the process by which Disney appropriates the Chinese legend of Mulan The Mulan Ballad Mulan Ballad upon into a universal classic, and offers an interpretation of The upon which the lm is based, claiming that Disney’s appropriation simultaneously reinforces existing racial and gender ideologies by deprecating Chinese culture as an Oriental despotism, and by dissolving feminism into the cultural/racial hierarchy. hierarchy.

Summary The abovementioned formula has helped to establish the commercial and cultural might of the Disney brand as the world leader in animation production (while the brand has, in turn, strengthened the formula). However However,, the success of Disney animation is closely related to its quality. Disney does not cling to the formula blindly,, but is instead aware blindly aware of trends trends in American and global popular popular culture, and is receptive to introducing new themes and technologies (Chan 2002).

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Transculturation presupposes cultural transfer. Transculturation transfer. In other words, there would be no cultural transformation without cultural transfer. This article employs Itamar EvenZohar’s theory (1990/1997) on cultural transfer to deal with cultural problems in the production and translation of Mulan. Even-Zohar’s model (2008) of cultural contacts is generally applied to historical studies of cross-cultural exchange, but it has implications for cultural transfer in AV industries. Many studies have been done on cultural transformations in Disney’ Disney’ss Mulan, but the available literature has not taken a closer look at the differences between the lm and The Mulan Ballad . The current study uses ‘cultural deformation’ rather than ‘cultural transformation’, because in cross-cultural communication, cultural transformation is, in many cases, an indication of unfaithfulness to and disrespect for the original culture. In previous studies of Mulan, the Chinese version of the lm was studied from the angle of translating strategies (Tang 2008), but not from a cultural perspective. Given that Disney’s Mulan is thematically a borrowing of Chinese culture and that it returns home through the Chinese translation, it seems more signicant to study the cultural relationship between the lm and the ballad with regard to adapting and translating methods. 2

Chinese culture in the film Mulan, the 36th animated feature in the Walt Disney animated classics, and part of the Disney renaissance, was produced primarily at the Disney animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with the story by Robert D. San Souci and the screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer and Raymond Singer. Its production lasted ve years. It originally began as a short, straight-to-video lm entitled ‘China Doll’ about an oppressed and miserable Chinese girl who is whisked away by a British Prince Charming to happiness in the West. West. Then Disney consultant and children’s book author, San Souci, suggested making a movie of the Chinese poem, The Mulan Ballad , and Disney combined the two projects. The Mulan project began in 1994. After the production team had sent a select group of artistic supervisors to China for three weeks, to take photographs and make drawings of local landmarks for inspiration and to soak up local culture, the lm-makers decided to change Mulan’s character to make her more appealing and seless. Released by Walt Disney Pictures on 19 June 1998, the lm was well received by critics and the public, grossing $304 million, earning Golden Globe and Academy Award Award nominations, and winning several Annie Awards, Awards, including Best Animated Feature. 3 It is the rst time that Disney has ever drawn on an Asian story when making an animated feature. Chinese people’s memory of the heroine is mainly related to The Mulan Ballad , or The Song of Mulan. It has been ofcially included in Chinese

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textbooks for primary schools in mainland China in the past decades, which gives rise to the fact that all educated Chinese people know the heroic deeds of Mulan, and are even able to recite the ballad. In folktales and poetry the legend of Mulan can be traced as far back as the fourth century AD, AD, but there is no conclusive evidence that Mulan was a real person at all (Chan 2002). There are different versions of the legend in Chinese literature. Mulan’s story was rst transcribed and recorded in Zhĳiang’ Zhĳiang’ss Gujin Yuelu [ Musical Musical Recor Records ds of Old and New] in the sixth century – a document which no longer exists (Jing 2011). The current available text of the poem known Music-Bureau eau as The Mulan Ballad is from the anthology Yuefu Shĳi [Collection of Music-Bur Poems], compiled by Maoqian Guo during the 12th century in the Song dynasty. Later writers composed different stories of Mulan. The Disney creation mainly drew upon the oldest available version of the ballad (ibid.). For the purpose of comparison, the focus here will be on The Mulan Ballad in Yuefu Shĳi. The ballad goes as follows:

唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织。不闻机杼声，惟闻女叹息。问女何所思，问女何所忆。女亦无所思，女亦无所忆。昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵。军书十二卷，卷卷有爷名。阿爷无大儿，木兰无长兄。愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征。东市买骏马，西市买鞍鞯。南市买辔头，北市买长鞭。旦辞爷娘去，暮宿黄河边。不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻黄河流水鸣溅溅。旦辞黄河去，暮至黑山头。不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻燕山胡骑鸣啾啾。万里赴戎机，关山度若飞。朔气传金柝，寒光照铁衣。将军百战死，壮士十年归。归来见天子，天子坐明堂。策勋十二转，赏赐百千强。可汗问所欲，木兰不用尚书郎。愿驰千里足，送儿还故乡。爷娘闻女来，出郭相扶将；阿姊闻妹来，当户理红妆；小弟闻姊来，磨刀霍霍向猪羊。开我东阁门，坐我西阁床，脱我战时袍，著我旧时裳，当窗理云鬓，对镜帖花黄。出门看火伴，火伴皆惊忙：同行十二年，不知木兰是女郎。雄兔脚扑朔，雌兔眼迷离；双兔傍地走，安能辨我是雄雌？ Two English versions of the ballad are available: one is by the sinologist Han H. Frankel (1976), while the other is by Anonymous, on the ofcial Disney website (see Chan 2002). Both translations are faithful to the original. Due to the certainty of the translator’ss identity, Frankel’s translator’ Frankel’s version will be used as English glossing in discussing the Chinese ballad in later sections. The ballad goes as follows: Tsiek tsiek and again tsiek tsiek, Mu-lan weaves, facing the door. You don’t hear he ar the shuttle’s sh uttle’s sound, You only hear Daughter’s sighs.

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Cultural deformations and reformulations They ask Daughter who’s in her heart, They ask Daughter who’s on her mind. “No one is on Daughter’s heart, No one is on Daughter’s Daughter ’s mind. Last night I saw the draft posters, The Khan is calling many troops, The army list is in twelve scrolls, On every scroll there’s Father’s name. Father has no grown-up son, Mu-lan has no elder brother. I want to buy a saddle and horse, And serve in the army in Father’s place.” In the East Market she buys a spirited horse, In the West Market she buys a saddle, In the South Market she buys a bridle, In the North Market she buys a long whip. At dawn she takes leave of Father and Mother, In the evening camps on the Yellow River’s bank. She doesn’t hear the sound of Father and Mother calling, She only hears the Yellow River’s owing water cry tsien tsien. At dawn she takes leave of the Yellow Yellow River, In the evening she arrives at Black Mountain. She doesn’t hear the sound of Father and Mother calling, She only hears Mount Yen’s nomad horses cry tsiu tsiu. She goes ten thousand miles on the business of war, She crosses passes and mountains like ying. Northern gusts carry the th e rattle of army pots, Chilly light shines on iron armor. Generals die in a hundred battles, Stout soldiers return after ten years. On her return she sees the Son of Heaven, The Son of Heaven sits in the Splendid Hall. He gives out promotions in twelve ranks And prizes of a hundred thousand and more. The Khan asks her what she desires. “Mu-lan has no use for a minister’s post. I wish to ride a swift mount To take me back to my home.” When Father and Mother hear Daughter is coming They go outside the wall to meet her, leaning on each other.

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Mingwu Xu and Chuanmao Tian When Elder Sister hears Younger Sister is coming She xes her rouge, facing the door. When Little Brother hears Elder Sister is coming He whets the knife, quick quick, for pig and sheep. “I open the door to my east chamber, I sit on my couch in the west room, I take off my wartime gown And put on my old-time clothes.” Facing the window she xes her cloudlike hair, Hanging up a mirror she dabs on yellow ower powder She goes out the door and sees her comrades. Her comrades are all amazed and perplexed. Traveling together for twelve years They didn’t know Mu-lan was a girl. “The he-hare’s feet go hop and skip, The she-hare’s eyes are muddled and fuddled. Two hares running side by side close to the ground, How can they tell if I am he or she?”

The Chinese legend of Hua Mulan centres on a young woman who disguises herself as a man to take the place of her elderly father in the army, thus circumventing her ineligibility,, as a woman, to join the army in feudal China.4 The earliest accounts of ineligibility the legend state that she lived during the Northern Wei Wei dynasty (386–534). However However,, another version reports that Mulan was sought as a concubine by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty (604–617). The lm may be set even later, later, as it prominently features landmarks such as the Forbidden City, which was not constructed until the 15th century, during the Ming dynasty. dy nasty. On the other hand, at the th e time of the Northern North ern Wei, Wei, the Xiongnu (Huns) had already been assimilated into Chinese culture. However, according to the style of dress (traditional Han clothing, also known as Hanfu), the lm is set in the 15th century or sometime before. The reworks featured in the movie indicate that the events unfolded during the Sui dynasty. Though Mulan is set in north China, where the dominant language is Mandarin, the Disney lm uses ‘Fa’, the Cantonese pronunciation of ‘Hua’, as her family name. The matchmaking episode featured in the lm, which includes the bride being made up, bathing and doing her hair, is intimately associated with China’s marital culture. In a word, the lm is a mixture of Chinese cultures, with the ballad as its plot basis.

Cultural deformations deformations in the film Disney’s Mulan is not faithful to the ballad or Chinese culture (Jing 2011; Tang 2008; Zhang 1999). In a sense, the production team merely used the poem to create

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its own story according to the Disney formula. The ballad is a very short story, and its lack of detail left much room for Disney’s writers to exercise their imagination. On the one hand, a few distinctive Chinese cultural artefacts such as the Great Wall, Wall, the Chinese dragon and Tiananmen Square (which are well known to global audiences) have been added to the lm so as to strengthen its Chinese avour. On the other hand, some Disneyed elements, such as young romance and individualism, have also been added so as to prevent the lm from becoming so exotic that it keeps global audiences away. As a result, the original Chinese culture loses its authenticity, and cultural deformation arises in the lm.

Definition of cultural deformation Cultural borrowing is common in human literary and artistic production, and is often not a mechanical copying but a rewriting or an adaptation of the original culture ‘carried out under the inuence of particular categories and norms constituent to systems in a society’ (Lefevere 1992: 13). In the process of cultural adaptation (Chan 2002; Lotman 1990) the original culture is cleansed, essentialised and transformed. Due to the fact that Disney’s borrowings are precious treasures of world culture which have been distorted to varying degrees due to the employment of various adapting strategies, this kind of cultural transformation can be called ‘cultural deformation’. In Mulan, many adapting methods are employed, including additions, omissions, alterations, explicitations, reinterpretations, and so on. Cultural deformations in the lm can be examined on two levels, namely the content and the linguistic level.

Content deformations in the film To start, a comparison between the lm and the Chinese ballad, in terms of their characters and plot, would be useful. Table 1: A comparison between the characters in

Mulan and The Mulan Ballad

Characters The Mulan Ballad

Mul ula an

Mulan, Father, Mother, Mother, elder sister sister,, younger brother, Kehan/Tianzi (Emperor), Hun horsemen, China’s generals and soldiers, Mulan’s comrades Fa Mul ula an, Mus ush hu (d (drragon) n),, Li Shang, Sha han n Yu, Yao, Ling, Chi hie en Po, Chi Fu, Fa Zhou, Grandmother Fa, the Emperor of China, First Ancestor, Fa Li, General Li, Cri-Kee (cricket), Khan (horse), Little Brother (dog), and so on

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Mingwu Xu and Chuanmao Tian Table 2: A comparison between the main plots in

Mulan and The Mulan Ballad

The main plot The Mulan Ballad

Mulan weaves; the Khan calls troops; disguised as a man, she joins the army in her father’s place; she fights for 12 years and gains high merit; refusing to be an imperial minister, she retires to her hometown and is found to be a woman

Mula lan n

The Huns in invvade Chi hin na; th the e emperor ca call lls s his troop ops s; di dis sgui uis sed as a man, she joins the army in her father’s place; her father prays to the ancestors and a dragon protects her; she is trained to become a skilled warrior; she reveals her deception in battle; she wipes out most of the Huns in an avalanche; she saves the emperor’s life by killing the remaining Huns who captured him; declining the offer to become the emperor’s advisor, she retires to her hometown

A comparison between the lm and the ballad clearly indicates that additions, omissions, specications, explicitations and alterations are employed in the design of characters and plot structure in Mulan. Additions describe the introduction of episodes not found in the ballad. Many characters are invented and added in the lm, such as Li Shang, Shan Yu, Yao, Ling, Chien Po, Chi Fu, Grandmother Fa, First Ancestor, General Li, together with three animals including Mushu, Cri-Kee and Little Brother. Some details are also added to the plot of the lm, such as the matchmaking for Mulan, her father’s prayer to the ancestors, the emperor being captured by the Huns, the combat between Mulan and Shan Yu, and so on. Omissions entail the omission of some of the ballad episodes from the lm. Mulan is described as the only daughter of the Fa family, so her elder sister and younger brother,, who brother who appear appear in the ballad, are not found in the lm. As for the plot, plot, the viewer does not see Mulan weaving at the start of the lm, her camping by the Yellow Yellow River, or her sister and brother welcoming her when she returns home. Specications entail ballad details being made more specic in the lm. The ballad does not provide the specic names of Mulan’s parents, who are labelled as ‘ ye’ (爷) and ‘niang ’ (娘), which were (and still are) terms used to address one’s parents in China. But in the lm, Fa Zhou and Fa Li are designated by name. A similar case is the horse in the ballad, which is given the name ‘Khan’. The description of Mulan’s Mulan’s war experience is very sketchy in the ballad, which devotes only three sentences to it. In the lm, though, several stories are invented to detail and complicate the experience: Mulan’s training; her use of a cannon to wipe out most of the enemy forces in an avalanche; her being slashed by Shan Yu; Captain Li Shang sparing her life and leaving her on the mountain after the medical attention she receives reveals her deception (with the consequence that she must be executed, according to law); the Huns’ capture of the emperor; her combat with Shan Yu, and so on. Here, the close relationship between the specications and the additions is evident – the former are largely dependent on the latter.

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Explicitations describe the way in which ballad details are made clearer in the lm. It is impossible to identify the enemies in the ballad – all that is known is that they come from the north according to ‘hu qi’ (胡骑, northern ethnic horsemen), of which ‘hu’ is an umbrella term used by the Han nationality in ancient times to refer to all ethnic groups to the north of China, such as Huns, Xianbeis, Tibetans, Mongolians, Turks, and so on.5 The Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589) represented an important period of national amalgamation in Chinese history, when many northern ethnic groups fought one another before being sinicised. During the time when The Mulan Ballad was composed, the Xianbeis controlled China and another ethnic group, the Rourans, established a powerful regime on the Mongolian grasslands and battled the Northern Wei for domination of the Western Regions. Both mountains ‘hei shan’ (黑山, Black Mountain) and ‘ yan shan’ (燕山, Mount Yen) mentioned in the ballad were famous battleelds when the Xianbeis and Rourans clashed (in what is now Mongolia). In the historical records of the Northern Wei, the Rourans were generally referred to as Huns, who called their chief Shanyu (Shan Yu) instead of Tianzi or Kehan.6 In the lm, these historical facts come to the surface through the invention of certain characters and stories. Alterations entail the changing of the storyline of the ballad in the lm. The above rewriting methods can be seen as alterations which also manifest themselves in the design of plot and character. For example, the lm and the ballad have different beginnings: the former begins with the Huns invading China and the latter with Mulan weaving on her loom. The reason why Mulan joins the army in her father’s place is is different: different: her father father is in poor health in the lm, while he is merely old in the ballad. Another difference relates to the discovery of her true identity: in the lm, Mulan reveals her deception after medical attention in the war, while in the ballad, she is found to be a girl only after she returns home and discards her warrior’s outt. As far as the image of Mulan is concerned, both the lm and the ballad present an image of a lial and brave girl, but the former changes a gentle girl into a rebellious one.

Linguistic deformations in the film The linguistic deformations in Mulan can be looked at from two perspectives: one is the adaptation of the language in the ballad; the other is the invention of the language in the lm. The ballad tells us the given name of the heroine, namely, Mulan. Her family name, Hua, is known through the folklore about her. The whole name Hua Mulan roughly means ‘magnolia ower’. In the lm, her family name changes from Hua to Fa, which is a Cantonese pronunciation of the orthodox Mandarin Chinese Hua. The lm is full of dialogues in which English-specic expressions are evident. For example, some som e terms of address, such as ‘Your ‘Your Majesty’, ‘Your ‘Your Highness’, Highness ’, ‘citizens’,

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‘Sir’, and so on, are literally quite different from the corresponding Chinese terms used in the same situation. ‘Your Majesty’ and ‘Your Highness’ may correspond to ‘皇上’ (huang shang ) or ‘陛下’ (bi xia) in Chinese culture, ‘citizens’ to ‘ 乡亲们’ ( xiang xiang qin men), ‘Sir’ to various terms, such as ‘ 大人’ (da ren), ‘老爷’ (lao ye), ‘先生’ ( xian ), ‘ 师傅’ ( shi xian sheng ), shi fu), and so on, on different occasions. Certain cultural expressions have also lost their original Chinese forms in the lm. For example, the Buddhist formula ‘南无阿弥陀佛’ ( Nan Nan Wu Ah Mi Tuo Tuo Fo, Namo Amitabha) is modied as ‘Ya Mi Ah To Fu Da’ and the Chinese dish ‘ 蘑菇鸡盆’ (mo gu ji pen, mushroom chicken bowl) is phonetically deformed as ‘moo goo gai pan’ which is clearly a transliteration of the Cantonese version of the dish.

Cultural restorations and reformulations in the Chinese version of Mulan China has practised the quota system of AV AV product importation since its entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001. It imports 20 foreign lms annually, which are generally dubbed but not subtitled. As Yves Gambier (2003) and Eithne O’Connell (2007) point out, during the second half of the 20th century, China became a ‘dubbing country’ (Tang 2008: 154). This is quite different from the situation of China’ss planned-economy era, including the 1980s and 90s, when all imported lms China’ used to be subtitled and dubbed at the same time, often with monolingual subtitles and sometimes with interlingual subtitles (Gottlieb 1998: 248). As for Mulan, both dubbed and subtitled versions in the form of versatile compact disk (VCD) or digital video disk (DVD) are available. The version dubbed in Taiwan Mandarin, targeted at Taiwan and non-mainland Chinese audiences, features a Chinese-American pop singer (CoCo Lee) and a Chinese kung-fu star (Jackie Chan), while the standard Mandarin version for the mainland market and the Cantonese version for the Hong Kong market have Jackie Chan alongside a Chinese mainland actress (Qing Xu) and a Hong Kong pop singer (Kelly Chen) (Tang (Tang 2008: 154). The Chinese version of the lm was produced by Disney Character Voices International, Inc. in Beijing Film Studio, and distributed by Beijing-based CAV Thakral Home Entertainment Co., Ltd.7 The translator is Weizhong Tu ( 涂卫中). This article does not discuss the strategies and techniques of dubbing in the Chinese version, but will instead focus on the script translation of the lm, to look at the employment of domesticating and foreignising translation methods which are aimed at restoring the original Chinese cultural context or introducing Americanised Chinese culture. Domesticating methods are the ones that try to bring the source text as close as possible to the target language and culture, while foreignising methods are biased towards the source language and culture, and try to maintain the foreign avour. Generally speaking, both domesticating and foreignising methods are

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employed in any translation including AVT (see Tian 2010). The case of Mulan is complex in that Chinese culture is the source culture in terms of Disney’s Mulan and American American culture is the source culture in terms of the Chinese translation of the lm. It is possible that the deformed Chinese culture in the lm may be restored as its original form or it is just presented as a hybridised form in the translation. The former is known as cultural restoration, and the latter as cultural reformulation.

Cultural restorations Cultural restoration means that cultural deformations produced by cultural adaptations come back to their original forms. Cultural restoration relates not only to linguistic forms but also to semantic content and contextual atmosphere. It is often achieved by domesticating translation methods. The Chinese culture in Mulan goes beyond the ballad to cover more cultural elements of ancient China, due to its many additions. Therefore, the cultural restoration being spoken of here in the Chinese translation of the lm is not necessarily the restoration of the culture in the ballad, but that of Chinese culture in general. The translator of the lm uses such domesticating methods as diction (choice of words), generalisation (which makes a specic thing general or abstract), substitution (which substitutes one thing for another), semantic addition (words are added to reproduce the original meaning), semantic deviation (in which the target text deviates from the original meaning), free translation (which reproduces not the literal but the deep meaning of the source text), and so on, to reconstruct the authentic cultural milieu. Let’s look at some examples. (1) General Li: Your Majesty, Majesty, the Huns have crossed our Northern border. 李将军：启禀皇上，匈奴已越过北方边界。 (2) Chi Fu: Yes, Your Highness Highness.. 赐福：臣在。 (3) Chi Fu: Citizens, I bring you a proclamation proclamation from from the Imperial City City.. The Huns have invaded China! 赐福：乡亲们！我从京城带来皇上的谕令，匈奴侵犯中原！ (4) Chi Fu: The Fa Family. Mulan: No. Fa Zhou: I am ready to serve the Emperor. Emperor. 赐福：花家接旨。木兰：不。父亲：草民已准备为国效劳。 (5) Matchmaker: Fa Mulan 媒婆：花木兰

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(6) Yao: Ya Mi Ah To Fu Da. 阿尧：南无阿弥陀佛 (7) Emperor: My children, heaven smiles down upon the Middle Kingdom. 皇上：我的子民们，感谢老天爷照顾京城。 (8) General Li: Forgive me your Majesty Majesty,, but I believe my troops can stop him. Emperor: I won’t take any chances, General. A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat. 李将军：恕臣直言，我的重兵能够阻挡单于。皇上：我们不能够冒这个险，将军。小兵也会立大功。有时候不起眼的人也是胜败关键。 (9) Fa Li: You must go after her. She could be killed! Fa Zhou: If I reveal her, she will be. Grandma Fa: Ancestors, hear our prayer: Watch over Mulan. 母亲：你必须把她追回来，这可是欺君之罪啊！父亲：万一暴露了，是要杀头的呀！婆婆：列祖列宗，求求你们，保佑木兰吧！ The term ‘Your Majesty’ was and is used to address a king or queen in England. Its use in example (1) colours the dialogue with Anglophonic culture. But in the Chinese version, ‘启禀皇上’ (qi bing huang shang ) is used, immediately signifying ancient China to witness a dialogue between the emperor and his subject. The translation of ‘Yes, Your Your Highness Highness’’ into ‘ 臣在’ (chen zai) in example (2) reconstructs a similar situation of conversation, as if it were taking place in feudal China’s imperial palace. Here, the restoration of the authentic Chinese cultural context is based on diction. The translation not only uses the language of ancient Chinese people, but also chooses the language which is most appropriate to the very context of the situation. ‘陛下’ and ‘是的，陛下’ can be used to translate ‘Your Majesty’ and ‘Yes, Your Highness’ respectively. Although they may be used by ancient people, they are contextually improper. Another case in point is the choice of ‘ 乡亲们’ (folks) and ‘谕令’ (emperor’s order) to translate ‘citizens’ and ‘proclamation’ in example (3). Today, ‘citizen’ is often translated into ‘ 公民’ and ‘proclamation’ into ‘ 布告’ or ‘声明’. But these ‘modern’ translations will make audiences of the lm lose the sense of the time in which the story is set. However, the use of ‘ 乡亲们’ and ‘谕令’ not only agrees with the ancient Chinese language, but also makes the utterance very Chinese-specic. The name of the character ‘Chi Fu’ in example (3) is meaningless to English speakers, but its Chinese version ‘ 赐福’ has a meaning which is traditionally favourable to Chinese people. ‘赐’ means ‘give’, ‘ 福’ means ‘blessing’ and the whole expression ‘赐福’ means something like ‘May God bless you’ in Western

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culture. The phonetic mutation ‘Fa’ in example (4) is restored as the orthodox ‘Hua’ (花) in the translation and ‘I’ in the same example is not literally translated into ‘我’ but into ‘草民’ ( cao min, humble person), which is quite in agreement with the cultural context of the day. The minor character ‘Matchmaker’ ‘Matchmaker’ in the lm is not clear in terms of gender in English, because it means ‘someone who tries to arrange relationships or marriages between people’, 8 but is specied as ‘媒婆’ ( mei po, a female matchmaker) in example (5). In the lm, the matchmaker is a manly woman who reminds us of a circus clown and the Disney formula of pursuing comic relief. Yao’s seemingly meaningless formula for help ‘Ya Mi Ah To Fu Da’ in example (6) is a phonetic mutation of the Buddhist formula ‘Nan Wu Wu Ah Mi Tuo Tuo Fo’, perhaps a Cantonese version of the formula. It is restored as the original formula ‘ 南无阿弥陀佛’ in the Chinese version. The word ‘children’ in example (7) is not literally zi min, children and people), because translated into ‘孩子们’ but into ‘子民’ ( zi emperors tend to use the latter rather than the former to address their people in feudal China. This kind of translation expands the scope of reference of ‘children’ and the method may be labelled generalisation. The expression ‘A single grain of rice can tip the scale’ in example (8) is translated into ‘ 小兵也会立大功’ (a common soldier can also achieve great military merit), instead of the literal rendering ‘ 一粒稻米也能使天平倾斜’. This is a kind of free translation which focuses on the deep meaning of the source language and can make the verbal context more coherent. The ‘man’ in the same example is translated into ‘ 不起眼的人’ in which ‘不起眼的’ (unimportant) is a kind of semantic addition and seems to allude to Mulan. Free translation is also used in translating ‘She could be killed’ and ‘hear our prayer: Watch over Mulan’ in example (9), which are translated into ‘ 这可是欺君之罪啊’ and ‘求求你们，保佑木兰吧’ respectively. A literal rendering of ‘She could be killed’ is ‘ 她可能被杀头’, but ‘这可是欺君之罪啊’, which means ‘this is the crime of deceiving the emperor’, is the more probable utterance in the very context that the lm has constructed. Likewise, the literal rendering of ‘hear our prayer: Watch over Mulan’ into ‘ 听听我们的祈祷：看护好木兰’ is not what Chinese people would utter on that occasion. Instead, they would more probably say ‘求求你们，保佑木兰吧’ (Beg you, please bless and protect Mulan). Mulan).

Cultural reformulations Cultural reformulation means modications of the source culture in the receiving culture and re-modications of the modied culture when it is introduced back to the source culture in a certain form, such as translation. It is generally achieved by means of foreignising methods, such as adaptation (change of the original), amplication (addition of episodes), innovation (creative rendering), modernisation (in which modern language is used to replace traditional language), and so on. These methods

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are effectively employed in translating Mulan in terms of the portrayal of character image, the arrangement of content, and the use of language. In the lm, Mulan’s image is slightly changed from a gentle girl to a rebellious one. Additions of a few stories make the lm quite different from the ballad in terms of plot structure. structure. What is special is the design design of the victory celebrations. celebrations. Mulan Mulan nally becomes a hero and even the emperor bows to her in tribute. This was absolutely impossible in feudal China, where the emperor enjoyed the greatest power. No matter how great one’s military merit, the emperor would not display such servitude as to bow to anyone. Instead, the emperor would give someone invaluable gifts or a high position. Also impossible is Mulan’ Mulan’ss embrace of the emperor. emperor. There was a very important rule in feudal China: ‘it is improper for men and women to touch each other’s other ’s hand in passing passin g objects’ (男女授受不亲) and it was a great disgrace for a man and a woman to embrace, let alone a woman and an emperor. emperor. So far as language use is concerned, the lm is kind of hybridised in that both Chinese-specic expressions expressions such as pinyin names and typical English expressions such as ‘sandwich’, ‘council’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’ are combined to make the lm a hotchpotch of Chinese and American cultures. When these things are translated into Chinese, modications take place. Here is one example: (10) Emperor: See to it that this woman is made a member of my council. 皇上：我封这个女子为当朝宰相。 In the ballad, the gift is the title of an imperial minister; in the lm, it changes into a member of the council; and in the translation, it changes again into prime minister (宰相, zai xiang ). ). In translating names, additions are often employed. For example, Mushu, Cri-Kee and Khan are translated into ‘ 木须龙’ ( mu xu dragon), ‘幸运蟋蟀’ (lucky cricket) and ‘汗血马’ (sweat blood horse) respectively. Mushu is a little dragon in the lm, so the translator uses ‘龙’ (dragon) to clarify its image; Cri-Kee often brings luck to Mulan and ‘ 幸运’ (lucky) (lucky) is added to the name to give audiences this message; Khan is a horse and, as the heroine’s horse, it must be special and strong, and ‘汗血马’ is the most powerful horse in Chinese legends, which may be the reason why the translator species the horse by that name. In the Chinese version of the lm there is some kind of contemporary language. For example: (11) Mushu: Urgent news from the general! What’s the matter, you’ve never seen a ‘black and white’ before? 木须龙：将军府有令！怎么啦？你没见过“特殊快递”吗？ The euphemistic expression ‘black and white’ refers to some kind of handwritten or printed material, and it is generally and literally translated into Chinese as ‘ 白纸黑字’ (white (white paper and black character) character).. But here it is rendered into ‘ 特殊快递’ (te

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shu kuai di, special express), which is a contemporary term used in the express mail service. Perhaps the translator chose this term to indicate that it is an urgent message.

Discussion and implications As the ancient Chinese saying goes, ‘when tangerine grows to the south of the Huai River,, it is tangerine; when it grows to the north of the Huai River, it becomes trifoliate River orange’ (橘生淮南则为橘，生于淮北则为枳 ). It reveals a truth concerning genetic mutations due to the change of geographical environments in transplanting plants. It also applies to human cultural production, in which a cultural product undergoes change due to a change in cultural environment. The case of Mulan indicates that when The Mulan Ballad was transplanted to America it was no longer what it was in the original culture, due to Disney’s formulaic adaptation. The cultural transformation transformation of the legend is to be found in two points: on the one hand, the addition of distinctive Chinese Chinese cultural cultural traits leads to the lm working against the authenticity and unity of historical facts concerning China. On the other hand, the addition of Western elements into the ballad has resulted in transculturation or cultural hybridity. But it is vital to consider the effects of Disneyfying the Mulan legend: Disney’s Disney’s Mulan was a worldwide box ofce success which made the local and an unknown culture global, but the lm encountered resistance in China with only a limited reception (Tang 2008), which highlights the two faces of transculturation.

Intracultural and intercultural transfer

The ballad and intracultural transfer Transfer is at the centre of current academic and intellectual discussions about cultures which are no longer understood as isolated units, but as hybrid formations involved in permanent exchange, themselves always strongly inuenced by other cultures and, in turn, inuencing others (Feuchter et al. 2011). In cultural transfer cultural repertoire is established. According to Itamar Even-Zohar (1997: 374), cultural repertoire refers to ‘the aggregate of options utilized by a group of people, and by the individual members of the group, for the organization of life’. Every society or social group has its own culture which has been gradually built through the contributions of its members. However, not all cultural elements of a society or a group, material or symbolic, will be selected to organise its social life at a certain point or period in time. It will choose what is useful inside or beyond its own culture, to ensure its proper functioning. What is important in the concept of cultural repertoire is ‘option’. In a certain sense, cultural inheritance is selective. What is

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selected becomes part of the cultural repertoire of a society/group, and what is not selected becomes dormant or even extinct. Options from inside or outside a culture involve cultural contacts. Options inside a culture sometimes manifest between the subcultures of a larger culture, which may be viewed as a polysystem (Even-Zohar 1990) containing its own systems (i.e. subcultures). Options outside a culture manifest between different cultures. EvenZohar introduced his model (see Table 3) on cultural contacts when he taught his PhD students the course ‘Cultural Transfer’ in a 2008 spring seminar organised by the Intercultural Studies Group of Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Virgili, in Tarragona, Spain. Table 3: Even-Zohar’s model on cultural contacts Aspects of cultural contacts Factors

Agencies [agents] Trendsetters Canonisers

States

Processes

Stationariness ←→

Mobility

Repertoires/models Products

CULTURE CONTACTS (Intercultural contacts) (vs. Isolation/noncontacts) [Contactism vs. Evolution]

Dimensions

Groups ←→

Individuals

INTERCULTURAL INTERFERENCE Transfer / Translation Transplantation Cross-cultural relations Co-existence of repertoires Transculturalism

Retention

Changes [Spontaneous ←→ Planned]

Innovation Inventiveness/ creativity

Globalisation

Survival ←→ Success

Diffusion Competition

Center

Periphery

Non-official/weak codification (?)

Official/High codification

Centralisation

Fragmentation Heterogeneity ←→ Homogeneity

Source: Itamar Even-Zohar’s 2008 ‘Culture Transfer’ course organised by the Intercultural Studies Group of URV, Tarragona, Spain.

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Although the model is generally intended for historical studies of cross-cultural exchange, certain implications or possibilities of cultural contact research in AVT translation may be identied: •

Agents or participants in cultural contacts are a key factor. They may be makers of cultural repertoires;

•

Cultural contacts may facilitate cultural retention or innovation, or the establishment of a cultural model. Competitions between cultures may facilitate cultural creativity;

•

Isolationism or non-contact gives rise to cultural stationariness, while contactism or evolution leads to cultural mobility;

•

Intercultural interference interference may take place in the transfer of repertoires, models or products, or in translation;

•

Cultural contacts may be weak weak or non-ofcial non-ofcial in a central or dominant culture, but may be ofcially encouraged encouraged and promoted in peripheral peripheral cultures;

•

There may be more conicts in the contact between heterogeneous cultures than between homogeneous ones.

The model does not make provision for contacts within a particular culture. Actually Actually,, some cultures are heterogeneous in terms of their constituents, incorporating their own subcultures. A case in point is Chinese culture, which today comprises 56 ethnic groups which have their own traditional culture, yet have been assimilated into Chinese culture as a whole. The formation of Chinese culture has been a lengthy process, with the Han culture of the Middle Kingdom being pivotal, and incorporating other cultures from around the kingdom. For example, during the Northern Dynasties, when The Mulan Ballad was composed, there were frequent cultural contacts between the Han culture and ethnic cultures to the north, such as the Xianbei. They entered the northern part of the kingdom and became its rulers. The fact that the Xianbei and the Han lived together hastened the process of cultural integration. The mainstream status of the Han culture in Chinese history forced the Xianbei to give up some of their customs and habits, and to begin to accept the Han culture. This is reected in the ballad. For example, the Xianbei called their chief ‘ ke han’, while the Han called their chief ‘ tian zi’ or ‘huang di’. The composer of the ballad interchangeably uses ‘ ke han’ and ‘tian zi’ to refer to the emperor emperor.. Such inconsistency in addressing the emperor indicates that the ballad was written at the beginning of the integration of the Han and Xianbei cultures, and the earliest composer of the ballad must have been a Xianbei who was not accustomed to calling the chief ‘tian zi’, even though Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei had begun to sinicise the Xianbei Xianbei culture. Addressing hybridity in this

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way is evidence of cultural contact where the weak culture was assimilated into the strong culture. The hybridity of the ballad is also evident in other instances. The make-up which Mulan and her sister use, involves two expressions ‘ 花黄’ (hua huang , yellow ower powder) and ‘ 红妆’ (hong zhuang , rouge). Ordinary women – except for the emperor’ss concubines – were not allowed to apply rouge, but could use yellow ower emperor’ powder during the Northern Northern and Southern Southern Dynasties. It became popular for ordinary women to apply rouge during the Tang dynasty. This indicates that the ballad must have been modied and polished by later writers. Literary historians hold that the ballad was composed by the Xianbei of the Northern Wei, because ‘昨夜见军帖 ’ (last night I saw the draft posters) reects the habit of nomadic people, which is to hunt during daytime and discuss important matters at night. But the Han people were agrarians who discussed important matters during the day. Therefore, Therefore, the ballad was not written by them. It is generally believed that the transfer process of the ballad occurred as follows: it was rst composed in the Northern Wei, then spread and transferred from the north to the south of China during the Liang and Chen dynasties of the Southern Dynasties, when a monk named Zhijiang ( 智匠) rened records of old and new; a northern governor named it and recorded it in the Musical records Yuanfu Wei (韦元甫 ) picked it up from ordinary folk during the Tang dynasty, but it had already undergone many modications and the governor had it amended and polished again; nally its present form was recorded in the Collection of musicbureau poems compiled by Maoqian Guo.9 This lengthy process of disseminating the ballad explains the combination of different differe nt and sometimes contradictory linguistic and cultural elements from different eras. It also indicates that a folk ballad may be years in the making. If the ballad is viewed as a meme (Dawkins 1989), namely a cultural gene, then its dissemination is a type of cultural transfer through time and space. In this sense, cultural transfer also exists within a single culture. As Joseph Chan (2002) points out, the diversity of the Chinese versions of the Mulan story suggests that transculturation can take place across time, within a single culture. An interesting question is why the ballad remained dormant and unnoticed for such a long time in China, only becoming widely known after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Cultural options involve many factors, including ideology, norms, poetics, etc. In feudal China, lial piety,, patriotism, obedience and piety and bravery were appreciated appreciated and eulogised. eulogised. Almost all of these good qualities can be seen in Mulan, but one aspect of the ballad would have prevented it from achieving any of its present status in the past. That is feminism, or equality between men and women, which goes against mainstream feudal ethical norms – ‘the three cardinal guides and the ve constant virtues’ (三纲五常). One of these norms is that ‘the husband guides the wife’. The norm implies that a woman should not surpass a man in any respects, including bravery and ability. These norms

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are the ideological foundation of China’s feudal society and, thus, it would have been impossible for feudal rulers to canonise the ballad. However, things changed after 1949. The People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, has improved the status of women in a way that is unprecedented, as evidenced by Chairman Mao’s slogan: ‘women can hold up half the sky.’ At least theoretically and ideologically, women enjoy complete equality with men in modern-day China, which is quite different from the view of the old feudal China where boys were preferred. In this political context, the ballad has become an important symbol for the new government to publicise new values and ideologies, because its keynote is that women are just as capable as men – if not more so! Therefore, Mulan’s tale has been canonised through its ofcial inclusion in Chinese primary school textbooks. All Chinese pupils study and recite it, and remember it for the rest of their lives. It has become part of contemporary China’s cultural repertoire. • Mulan and intercultural transfer The production and translation of Mulan involves a bidirectional process of transfer between Chinese culture (CC) and American culture (AC). In this process, mutations and reformulations have happened to the source culture, as illustrated in the following gure.

Figure 1: Two-way cultural transfer in

Mulan

First, an examination is required of the outlets through which both transfers were achieved. The rst transfer process adopts Cantonese as the linguistic outlet for the ballad to enter American culture. This is illustrated by the numerous Cantonese transliterations in the lm, e.g., ‘moo goo gai pan’, ‘Fa Ping’ and ‘Chien Po’. The reason may be that the close relationship between Hollywood and the audiovisual industries of Hong Kong and Taiwan has made both regions major outlets for Chinese culture entering America and other Western countries since 1949, the year of the founding of P.R. China (see Wu & Chan 2007). Further evidence of the lm’s

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preference for Cantonese Cantonese transliterations transliterations is is the key participant participant of the cultural cultural contact contact (i.e. Mulan production), namely, the screenwriter Rita Hsiao, whose family name ‘Hsiao’ (萧) is a Cantonese transliteration based on the Wade-Giles romanisation system which has made it common practice for Cantonese speakers to romanise their names in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. Disney’s Mulan came back to China through another outlet, following negotiations between the company and the Chinese government. Disney’s release of Kundun, a lm about the biography of the Dalai Lama, soured relations with China. Moreover, with the import quota of Western Western lms set at only 20 per year (Tang 2008), Mulan’s chances of being accepted were low. Finally, after a year’s delay, the Chinese government allowed the lm limited Chinese release, but only after the Chinese New Year ear,, to ensure that local lms dominated dominated the more lucrative lucrative holiday market.10 In terms of the cultural deformations and reformulations in both transfers, the rst process of transfer is the production of Mulan, which relates to the deformations of Chinese culture as the source culture on both the linguistic and the cultural level. The ‘Hua’ of Hua Mulan is modied as ‘Fa’, a Cantonese pronunciation, which may be explained from two perspectives: on the one hand, some who participated in the production of Mulan speak Cantonese, rather than Mandarin. On the other hand, Disney has to consider Hong Kong residents and overseas Chinese who know English but mostly speak Cantonese. This may explain why many names in Mulan have been transliterated from Cantonese, rather than Mandarin, into English. Another linguistic distortion is Mulan’s pseudonym. In the lm she is given the name ‘Ping’ when she joins the army, and the whole name ‘Fa Ping’ ( 花瓶) constitutes a pun in Chinese: ‘owerpot’ and and ‘something supercial that serves little purpose other than as eye candy or decoration’. It is self-evident that she uses her father’s name when she joins the army, but the ballad does not tell us her father’s name. According to Wei Xu ( 徐渭) of the Ming dynasty, her father’s name is ‘Hu’ (弧) not ‘Ping’.11 The use of Western vocabulary such as ‘sandwich’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’ makes the lm a hybrid one. As far as Mulan’s character is concerned, it is slightly changed in the lm. She is hardworking, lial, gentle, unselsh and brave in the ballad, but she becomes a somewhat rebellious girl in the lm. This is evident from the matchmaking episode at the start of the lm: she refuses to listen to the matchmaker’s advice to be a good bride to bring honour to her family. She is trained as a skilled soldier by Captain Li Shang in the lm, and according to the Chinese legend she had been trained by her father to practise martial arts, horse-riding and archery since she was a little child. She is found to be a woman after she returns home in the ballad, but she reveals her deception during the war in the lm. The episode where she and her comrades disguise themselves as concubines to save the emperor is not found in the ballad. However,, this kind of plot design produces some humorous effect, which agrees with However

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the aesthetic bias of Western Western audiences, including children and adults. After Mulan becomes a great hero, all Chinese people, including the emperor, bow to her as an unprecedented honour. honour. Obviously, this is a reection of American individualism and heroism. The second process is the translation of the lm which involves both the restoration and reformulation of Chinese culture merely on the linguistic level. This is achieved by domesticating and foreignising translation methods respectively respectively.. Linguistically Linguistically,, ‘Fa’ is restored as ‘ 花’, ‘Ya Mi Ah To Fu Da’ as ‘ 南无阿弥陀佛’ and ‘moo goo gai pan’ as ‘蘑菇鸡盆’. The invented name ‘Chien Po’ is reformulated as the orthodox Chinese name ‘陈波’. Another invented name is ‘Chi Fu’ which roughly sounds like ‘赐福’ (ci fu, May God bless you) or ‘欺负’ (qi fu, to bully). He is a bad egg in the lm, so ‘欺负’ reects his character, yet the translator chose ‘ 赐福’ which is more like a person’ person’ss name in Chinese culture. The translation of ‘matchmaker’ into into ‘媒婆’ instead of ‘媒人’ is determined by the fact that matchmakers were always female in feudal China, and the matchmaker in the lm is a manly woman. Such semantic reformulation in translation may be regarded as a kind of deformation if Mulan is seen as the source culture, which is a combined product of Chinese and American cultures and ultimately part of Hollywood culture. It may be argued that inventions and innovations originating from American and other cultures are the very reason for the American AV industry dominating the world’s lm market. The reformulation in translating Mulan is also concerned with the use of contemporary Chinese expressions such as ‘特殊快递’, which achieves some humorous effect and at the same time makes the lm linguistically inconsistent in style.

Disneyfication and the two faces of transculturation • Disneycation, localisation and globalisation Disney’s classical animations are not original stories, but simplistically revised appropriations of fairy tales, legends and others’ ctions (Artz 2004). In manufacturing these animations, heterogeneous foreign cultures are homogenised according to the Disney formula, so as to expand the studio’s cultural repertoire. Mulan is no exception. Given that before Disney’s exploits, the story of Mulan was unknown to the West West and other non-Chinese Asian countries (Chan 2002), the whole process of Disney’ss production is worth exploring. Disney’ Disneycation is a kind of localisation in which the products of other cultures are Americanised according to American values, ideologies and expectations, in line with Disney’s organisational imperatives and formulaic approaches. In the eld of animation, America, America, as the most powerful country, is essentialised as Disney whose inuence and power are sufcient for its lms to go global. In a sense, what is local is American and what is American is global (Chan 2002). For Disney Disney,, the localisation

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of other cultures rests on freedom of choice, while for other cultures, globalisation is a type of coercion (see Rogers 2006). Disney can freely appropriate the themes of world classics to make lms, but other nation-states have to receive its products because its reputation, resources, marketing know-how and access to distribution infrastructure ensure maximum globalisation for its lms (see Chan 2002). • The two faces of transculturation Disneycation brings about localisation and globalisation of other cultures. In other words, Disney’s Disney’s lms help American and global audiences to get to know the treasures of cultures which are not their own. This facilitates cross-cultural communication and enhancement, and is a positive feature of the Disneycation process. However, cultural deformations inevitably take place in the process, and these deformations often affect the moral values and ideologies of the source culture. For example, the reason why Mulan joins the army in the ballad is rst and foremost her lial piety, which is the supreme virtue of children in traditional Chinese culture. But the lm implies that the reason is the love between father and daughter, as well as Mulan’s quest for her true self (Chan 2002; Jing 2011). Another example is the function of the matchmaker. In Chinese culture, parents arrange and determine the marriage of their children and the matchmaker is nothing but an intermediary intermediary.. But the lm seems to imply that the matchmaker decides the marriage. The image of Mushu, the dragon, is also problematic in the eyes of Chinese audiences who think it is too small, just like a lizard (Tang 2008), instead of a huge, scaly, serpent-like ying creature. The addition of animals to the lm was Roy Disney’ss suggestion (Chan 2002). In the ballad the only animal is a horse without a Disney’ name, as implied by ‘In the East Market she buys a spirited horse’ (Frankel 1976), but it is given the name ‘Khan’ in Mulan. Yin Jing (2011) contends that the name ‘Khan’ came from non-Han northern ethnicities, so it is ridiculous for Mulan to name her horse thus, because it is reserved only for the emperor. emperor. That is not necessarily the case. ‘Khan’ may be understood in two ways: the name may allude to Shan Yu, the ‘emperor’ of the Huns. In Chinese culture, a person riding a horse implies that he/ she conquers the horse. Therefore, Mulan’s Khan implies that the heroine will defeat Shan Yu sooner or later. More probable is the association of ‘Khan’ ( 汗) with the Chinese term ‘汗血宝马’ (han xue bao ma), as discussed above, which refers to the most powerful horse in Chinese legend. The inspiration for bringing a cricket into the lm may come from the onomatopoetic word ‘ 唧唧’ at the very beginning of The Mulan Ballad – – ‘Tsiek tsiek and again tsiek tsiek’ (Frankel 1976) – which may refer to the sound produced by a person’ person’ss sighs, or by birds or insects in the Chinese 12 language. Obviously, the latter reminded the lmmakers of a cricket. The fact that many households had dogs in feudal China must have made the lmmakers believe the Fa family should also have a dog, which is given the name ‘Little Brother’.

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Disney’s cultural deformation of the ballad met with resistance in China. Mulan had a ‘mild’ reception in mainland China in the rst year of distribution, with box ofce revenues of less than US$2 million (Tang 2008). Further cultural resistance came in respect of the domesticating translation methods employed by the translator translator.. Some Chinese culture-specic words are used to full nostalgic expectations; a large number of colloquial and slang expressions are used to bring the Chinese version more in line with contemporary popular taste; some dialectic words and several expressions from Taiwan Mandarin are used to conform to the linguistic preference of the majority of young viewers; English rhetorical devices are often replaced by Chinese ones to please the local audience (ibid.). Despite its negative effects, Disneycation helps create new cultural repertoires. A recent version of Mulan in Taiwan was strongly inuenced by Disney’s Mulan (Chan 2002), and thus a new repertoire has been established around the legend (see Wang & Yeh 2005). Transculturation makes the local foreign and the foreign local, and it has become a constant in cross-cultural communication in the era of globalisation. What is good for one, when it comes to transculturation, may be bad for another, and vice versa.

Conclusion The Mulan Ballad and and Mulan indicate that intracultural and intercultural transfers exist, and that cultural adaptations took place during both transfer processes. The establishment of a cultural repertoire is dependent on intracultural and intercultural adaptations, which include various kinds of domesticating and foreignising methods such as additions, omissions, generalisations, specications, explicitations, and give rise to cultural deformations and reformulations. Cultural survival or innovation, in some sense, is sustained by intracultural and intercultural rewritings. American AV culture, as an important part of American culture, has been drawing on what is excellent in other cultures to advance American AV production and dominate the world lm market. In the process of producing and translating American AV products, cultural contacts take place, causing cultural deformations and reformulations in the bidirectional cultural transfer. transfer. It is of great signicance to study how American American lmmakers make use of other cultures in producing lms, and how American lms are received through subtitling/dubbing in the source culture from which these lms obtained their inspiration in terms of plot. Moreover, it is also vital to study how American American lms are received in cultures other than the source culture and to determine whether cultural deformations and reformulations take place in their AVT products.

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Acknowledgement Research for this article was funded by the National Planning Ofce of Philosophy and Socia l Science, P.R. P.R. China (grant (gra nt no. 12BYY023). 12BYY023 ).

Notes 1 See http://www.cnki.net (accessed 23 June 2012). 2 The English version of the lm is available at http://www.sciscripts.com/cartoon/ mulan.txt and the Chinese version is by Tu Weizhong Weizhong with both dubbed dub bed and subtitled versions v ersions on the VCDs of the lm published by China Audiovisual Press and distributed by Thakral Co., Ltd. 3 A detailed introduction of Mulan is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan 4 The domain of women of the period was conned to housework including cooking and weaving, as evidenced by ‘Mu-lan weaves, facing the door’ (Frankel 1976). 5 See http://baike.baidu http://baike.baidu.com/view/134316.htm. .com/view/134316.htm. 6 See http://baike.baidu http://baike.baidu.com/view/28450.htm .com/view/28450.htm 7 See http://www.dhjbw http://www.dhjbw.com .com 8 See http://dict.bing.com.cn http://dict.bing.com.cn/#matchmaker /#matchmaker 9 See http://baike.baidu http://baike.baidu.com/view/4025.htm .com/view/4025.htm 10 For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan rg/wiki/Mulan 11 See http://baike.baidu http://baike.baidu.com/view/4025.htm .com/view/4025.htm 12 See http://baike.baidu http://baike.baidu.com/view/873591.htm .com/view/873591.htm

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