Writing Chinese America into Words and Images: Storytelling and Retelling of The Song of Mu Lan

The story of the ancient woman warrior—Mulan—has attracted repeated attention in China and the United States. This paper explores how words and images of the recreated Mulan story work together to construct a Chinese American tale that not only captures the cultural heritage of ancient China, but also conveys possibilities for female empowerment in the context of storytelling for Asian American and Asian diaspora children. The discussion on Jeanne Lee's The Song of Mu Lan (1995) will be contextualized with Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976) and Disney's animated film Mulan (1998).