DOZ Leadership Lessons
Eturuvie Erebor
HUA MULAN
A
s we celebrate women this month of
March and continue to advocate for
gender equality, I can’t think of a better
story for DOZ Leadership Lessons than that of
Hua Mulan.
Hua Mulan is a legendary/fictional female
Chinese warrior who disguised as a man, to
take her aged and disabled father’s place in the
Imperial Army. The story was initially described
in the Ballad of Mulan and more recently made
into an animation and movie by Disney.
At the beginning of the Disney animation,
Mulan is seen trying to fit into society’s mould.
She is preparing for her appointment with the
matchmaker who
is supposed to
find her a suitor.
She is under a lot
of pressure as her
father tells her the
family is counting
on her. When she
arrives her mother
and grandmother
are waiting for
her, and she is late,
disorganised and
disorientated and
full of excuses and
one can tell from
her mother’s and
grandmother’s
statements that
this is her modus
operandi. The
DOZ Magazine | March 2020
woman tasked with preparing her as is the
custom takes one look at her and asks the
mother and grandmother, is this what you give
me to work with? She is not impressed. Mulan
desires to bring honour to her family, and keep
her father standing tall, and while she is trying
hard to make this whole deal work, it is clearly
not working, and she is evidently not in her
place. Eventually, her appointment with the
matchmaker is a total disaster.
Then the emperor’s representative calls to
enlist a man from each household into the
Imperial Army to fight the Huns. Mulan is
concerned because her father is unwell and
walks with a limp. But he has no son to take
his place and so
he must go to
war himself. She
decides to become
a son and save her
father. At night,
while the rest
of the house is
sleeping, Mulan
cuts her hair,
steals her father’s
armour and sword
and disappears
into the night.
When she leaves
home, she has
no way of telling
what awaits her
or whether she
would return.
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