Having waited for a long time, Mulan finally was released across the Chinese mainland on September 11th. However, this adapted film has failed to live up to Chinese audience’s expectation. Mulan only gets 4.7 points out of 10 in Douban, a social media serving as a particular platform for people to discuss books, movies, music and arts. Why this live-action
remake, which is filmed by an excellent director and has a very strong cast, could not won the heart of Chinese audience?
The answer is quite obvious. This Mulan is not the one that we have known since we were children.
千呼万唤始出来，迪士尼真人版电影《花木兰》终于在9月11日在中国大陆上映了。令人遗憾的是，这部改编电影并没有达到中国观众的期待值。《花木兰》在豆瓣（一个较为专门地用于讨论电影，书籍，音乐以及艺术的社交平台）评分只有4.7分。为什么这部集优秀导演与强大演员班底于一身的真人版《花木兰》会在中国惨遭滑铁卢？答案是显而易见的：这并不是中国人从小熟知的那个花木兰。
As far as the movie’s concerned,obvious mistakes can be seen in the settings and lines. For example, a verse of Yuan dynasty appears in the movie, which tells the story in Northern Wei Dynasty. But the main reason of the disappointment is the distorted characteristics of Mulan.
In the original poem The Ballad of Mulan, Mulan is no more than an ordinary girl in a military family. We can never imagine how hard it was when she joined the army in the place of her father as a woman in that era. And finally, with hard effort, Mulan won glory for her family. However, Mulan has become a talented girl who is born with Qi in the live-action remake. This “superpower”, Qi, instead of making the enemies terrified, makes Mulan hard to strike the chord with the audience. After all, Mulan has changed from a brave and strong girl in a weak position to a superwoman who is chosen to finish the “mission”.
就电影而言，布景与台词都出现了明显的错误。比如，一句本属于元朝的诗句出现在这个以北魏为历史背景的故事当中。但观众们真正失望的原因在于这个被改得面目全非的花木兰。在原作《木兰辞》当中，花木兰是一个军人家庭的普通女儿。我们难以想象她在那个年代作为一个女性代父从军所经历的艰辛。而最后，她通过自己的奋斗为家族赢得了荣誉。然而，在这个真人版电影中，花木兰变成了一个天生带“气”的“天选之女”。这股“气”似乎并没有吓到敌人，反而让花木兰更难博得观众的共鸣。毕竟，花木兰从一个处于弱势地位但却勇敢强大的女性变成了一个天选的“女超人”。
Innovation is welcomed only when the original spiritual core can be maintained in the remake. It also makes sense when it comes to spreading traditional Chinese culture abroad. I assume that many of you may have heard of Li Ziqi, a short video blogger specializing in traditional Chinese cooking and handicrafts, who has gained worldwide popularity.
With the growth of Chinese economy, people overseas are showing more interest in Chinese culture. I think it is also one of the reasons why more and more Chinese traditional stories have been made into films and television works by foreigners these years. And Li has shown how to satisfy that interest in a good way. She let more foreigners know what true traditional Chinese culture is like.
在原来的精神内核得以保留的前提下的创新是值得鼓励的。而这道理同样可以用于中华传统文化的对外传播当中。我猜许多人都听说过李子柒吧，一个专做中国传统烹饪与手作短视频的视频博主，在海内外都享有很高的人气。随着中国经济的发展，外国人对中国传统文化展现出了愈发浓厚的兴趣。我想，这也是为什么近几年越来越多的中国传统故事会在海外被翻拍影视作品。李子柒则向我们展示了一种怎么去迎合这种兴趣的好方式。她让更多的外国人知道了什么是真正的中国传统文化。
Mulan and Li ziqi must inspire you to think the following questions. How to avoid more Mulans being changed into superpower women? How to effectively and correctly present the beauty of Chinese culture to the world? How to be the qualified cultural spreader yourselves? I suppose these should be the questions that worth everyone’s thinking.
《花木兰》和李子柒大概会引起你对一些问题的思考吧！怎么去避免更多的“木兰”被改成女超人？怎么高效地，正确地向世界展示中国文化的美？怎么去当一个称职的文化传播者？我认为这些都是值得我们思考的问题。
