Ten Things You May Not Know About Mulan
Mulan was inspired by the character Hua Mulan from the Chinese poem “The Ballad of Hua Mulan.” Since so little historical details survive from the time the poem was written, it’s unknown whether Hua Mulan was a real person. In the original poem, Mulan’s surname was spelled using the Mandarin pronunciation “Hua,” though Disney uses the spelling for the Cantonese pronunciation, “Fa.” In the original poem, Mulan’s identity as a woman was never revealed while she was serving in the army.