Mulan (1998) is an American animated film created by Disney. The full-length feature is a retelling of the millennia-old tale of the eponymous folk hero, who goes to serve in the Chines imperial army posing as a man, taking the place of her father who is too ill to serve, covering her adventures along the way and how she helped to stave off a massive invasion from the Huns.
This entry will not focus on the character of Mulan, but rather on Li Shang (voiced by B.D. Wong, with singing voice performed by Donny Osmond). Li Shang is the captain of the corps to which Mulan is assigned and fights for, using the alias of Ping as a man.
There is much to admire in Li Shang. He is a strong, smart, and capable leader. His storyline is not just about his queerness but includes a lot of personal and professional growth and release of pride. While he can be stubborn and short-sighted at times, he is also capable of admitting when he has made mistakes.
Regarding his queerness, one who thinks of that term and “1990s Disney” may think at first that the two terms do not go together in the same sentence. However, part of Li Shang’s storyline is about his attraction not to Mulan, but rather to Ping. As he admires his resourcefulness and quickness, it is clear that his admiration is also one of attraction, which is thrown into doubt when it is revealed that Mulan is a woman. While some may argue this is a queerness-as-conflict storyline, again, this is not all of Li Shang’s storyline as he goes through family loss and the stresses of war and leadership. And those who argue that they were just soldiers and friends – well, most of us don’t ride across multiple provinces just under the guise of returning a helmet and then accepting a dinner date with the family. Plus, the look of admiration he gives Mulan is drawn the same way he looks at Ping.
It should also be noted that the retellings of Mulan over the years have 1) taken on multiple gender bending forms and adaptations and flourishes, and 2) at the time the original story is set, homophobic tendencies were not as ingrained as they are in our culture today. (To note, this is the same country that came up with the homoerotic tale of the Passion of the Cut Sleeve.)
In an interview on the Las Culturistas podcast, which was then quoted in an article by Gay Times, Wong expanded on discussing Li Shang’s bisexuality:
I would like to think that he was. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, and I don’t want to be a coward or anything like that… okay, but you know what? Okay, no. Fluidity is a very important thing to acknowledge. […] Over the years, Li Shang has been hailed as a “bisexual icon” due to fans pointing out an attraction between the army general and Ping.
Wong went on to elaborate on the making of the film and the evolution of fluidity within pop culture.
When we made the movie, fluidity was not a word. We didn’t talk about fluidity. Now, we have fluidity. Now we watch Shang and his choices and his actions and see it through fluidity.
And this whole idea that there’s a needle, and it goes from zero to 100, and it doesn’t have to be one place or another. It can move. You can change your pronouns and then change them the next day if you want, and that’s good and should be the way it is. […] So in that case, I’m recalibrating my answer. Of course, he was! What other reason would there be?
In conclusion, though the representation with Li Shang may feel slight in retrospect, it was, in fact, rather significant over time. Here we have a bi male character of color in a major Disney film, not only coming to terms with his queerness and attractions but experiencing personal growth in storylines that have nothing to do with his bisexuality. Even though it may be considered a smaller storyline, it is still valid and, to this day, a rare example of a bi man of color in modern animation.