The Original Live Action Mulan: the Everlasting Yu Opera Tradition

BY HANNAH KOTLER ‘22

After a six month delay, the live-action Mulan has finally been released on Disney Plus, accessible to all impatient fans (which I was) willing to pay the extra $30 (I wasn't, therefore I won't comment on the new movie itself). By December, it will be free to all subscribers, and I’ll welcome it generously to our Chinese New Year watchlist, in addition to the 1998 Mulan and Aladdin we play every year. Now we have, in total, three english movies based on warped western interpretations of Asian folktales, by non-Asian production teams to represent thousands of years of Asian culture, history, and art. Seems a bit ironic doesn't it?

Perhaps 30 years ago, an Asian Disney princess was a groundbreaking concept, but after three decades, the fact that our understanding of Asian culture still stops at Mulan and Aladdin is disappointing. Though it's unfair to cancel Disney's wonderfully inspiring and Disneyish portrayal of Mulan and Jasmine, and I own that I enjoyed both movies, they distract from Asia's most genuine and untampered art forms, each region its own, that is altogether invisible to the Western world and scarcely talked about even in the Asian community. As my community back home obsesses over the competition of, bluntly, ‘who can be the whitest,’ the precious grains of our own heritage slip away through our fingers. Instead of complaining about the lack of representation, I wanted to hold on to this gold myself and display their glow by sharing a series of articles on the art forms of various regions in Asia. This piece is the first.

A week ago, I was marveling at the brilliance of the new Mulan––which genius thought of making a live action version after 20 years!?––when it occurred to me that traditionally, Mulan has always been a live production. In fact, the folk story of HuaMuLan (without the crazy dragon of course) was written in the South-North Dynasty(around 500CE), considered one of the most popular plays in most Dynasties after that, and performed in various forms, such as the Yu Ju. 

Yu refers to HeNan province in central China and Ju means drama or opera; YuJu is one of the five major genres of Chinese performing arts. YuJu, or HeNan Opera, originated in the late Ming Dynasty (around 1400CE) as a fascinating mix of various music and dance in the region, such as the or Bangzi and the local folk songs and minor tunes. Located precisely on the midline between the industrial north and agrarian south and near both major rivers in China, HeNan's capital, Kaifeng, was a cultural centre. It’s diversity and inclusivity attracted various ethnic minorities and allowed not only ethnic Han people, but also Mongolians, Hui peoples, Manchus, and Jews to participate in YuJu. 

YuJu, like Shakespeare, was intended for the common people and only performed for the royalty when called for; thus, it often included rude and controversial content and was always amongst the first forms of entertainment to be banned in political turmoil. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution, claiming YuJu a feudal remnant of old China, burned many of its traditional costumes, props, and banished opera troupes. As a result many YuJu actors fled to TaiWan. When the Revolution ended, the less terrorized people welcomed YuJu back with glee; for a decade the art form strengthened the bridge between Mainland and Taiwan as former YuJu actors returned. In the 20th century, YuJu served as entertainment at political settings (conferences with the US, Germany, Britain) and began to take on international plays, such as The Merchant of Venice with an opera spin.

YuJu integrates literature, music, art, dance, fashion, and martial arts. It uses exaggerated language, body language, brilliant color,  to express a mundane but fantastical story. The technicalities of YuJu are hard to translate and explain. There is a whole world of YuJu––specific gestures, categories of makeup, YuJu heroes––that I'm still far from grasping. For one, there are various different genres within YuJu itself. Each genre of YuJu has its own ways, going from forms of makeup to precise gestures or expressions. Almost all YuJu, however, rely completely on its performers and use a few very simple props. 

The most famous aspect of YuJu, the "masks", you’ve probably seen painted over all the oriental souvenirs. These "masks'' come in a variety of colors and patterns depending on the character's role and are layered on to an actor's face with oil paint. Each of the four major categories of masks, sheng, dan, jing, and chou, includes five or so masks representing different roles, and actors typically stick to a specific category throughout their career. For example, chou is the equivalent to the fool or comedic character; lao sheng of the sheng category, the iconic bright red mask with a mustache, represents the middle aged man; and cai dan of the dan category relates the crazy widow or spinster aunt. Masks in Dan, a category usually assigned to women, emphasizes the updrawn eyeliner, tiny cherry lips, and pale skin. 

The West derived its oriental stereotypes, including that apparent in Mulan, from the YuJu, a performance with makeup and all! That’s the equivalent of deriving the image of America exclusively off the Wizard of Oz––as wacky as this country is, we aren't all tinmans and scarecrows are we? While it's true that the Chinese esteemed fair skin and red lips, women most likely put on a mere bit of blush to get married.  In any dynasty, most women never powdered their face so inconceivably white, like Mulan did, other than to play a part in an Chinese opera or to pose for a painting.