In the original poem, the heroine's
name is simply "Mulan." "Mulan" means "magnolia." ("Mu" by itself means
"wood" and "Lan" means "orchid.") Mulan is often given a last name, Hua,
which means "flower." Both the Chinese pinyin and the Wade-Giles method
spell the name Hua Mu-Lan, while the Cantonese transliteration spells it
Fa Mulan or Fa Muhk Laahn. (Last names come first in Chinese.)
On a related note: there is to
be a dragon named Mushu in the film. The dictionary Angela Kuo used listed
"wooden comb" and a kind of plant as definitions for that particular spelling.
A friend of mine suggested that the name may be a twist on the word "moshu,"
which means "magic" and seems more appropriate for a dragon.
When Mulan sings "Reflection" in her father's shrine, her reflection appears
in the polished surface of the temple stones. The writing on the temple stones
is the names of the Disney animators who worked on the film written in ancient
Chinese.
The scene where Mulan finds a child's doll in the burnt-out Chinese village
is a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind," in
which an explorer/warrior finds the same doll in an abandoned village.
The scene where Mulan finds the little girl's doll in the burnt-out Chinese
village is a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,
in which the explorer, Master Yupa, finds the same doll in an abandoned
village.
Since 1996
