Defining the "Racialized Gaze:" From Hum's Analysis of Disney's Mulan (1998)
The racialized gaze is the assumption that the default reader(s) or observer(s) comes from the perspective of someone who identifies themselves as part of the dominant race according to social standards in a given culture. As discussed by renowned African American author Toni Morrison, the racialized gaze is typically referred to as the white gaze in Western culture.
WHAT IS THE RACIALIZED GAZE?
In her essay "The Racialized Gaze: Authenticity and Universality in Disney's Mulan" (2007), Sue Hum problematizes the dominant scopic regime of cinematography and film as one presumptive of a singular way of "seeing." Hum articulates that the dominant scopic approach of Cartesian perspectivalism—best summarized as a view from nowhere—is an inherently troublesome concept in theory and application. Through Cartesian perspectivalism, Hum argues that racial and ethnic identities are rendered inconsequential in two ways: authenticity and universality. The disconnected stance that Cartesian perspectivalism advocates for enables a value judgement of "cultural authenticity" to be placed on whether or not individuals "fulfill certain 'correct' and even 'native' race-related characteristics" (108). The omnipresence of Cartesian perspectivalism also infers a degree of universality that suggests "that all human beings are essentially alike in needs, desires, and aspirations" (108). Combined, ideas of authenticity and universality rooted in Cartesian perspectivalism create a racialized gaze that not only trivializes, but erases racial identities.
Tracing Disney's Mulan: A History of Hua Mulan (花木兰)
木蘭辭
[Ballad of Mulan]
The oldest records of Mulan's story can be traced back to a poem in the 5th or 6th century called The Ballad of Mulan. Likely beginning as an oral tradition during the Northern Wei dynasty (386 – 534 A.D.), the ode was thought to be written down some time during the Tang dynasty (618 – 907 A.D.). The tale itself primarily depicts Mulan's resolve to take her father's place amongst the Chinese army in an unnamed conflict. After twelve years of war, Mulan and her comrades return home and are offered prominent roles by the Son of Heaven for their service. Mulan rejects this offer however, asking instead to return home to her family where she resumes her feminine appearance. Her former comrades are shocked to learn she is a woman, which leads to the poem's concluding question: If two hares run side-by-side, how can one distinguish the he and the she?
The Gaze Unchanged: Updating Hum's "Racialized Gaze" with Disney's Mulan (2020)
In her 2007 work, Sue Hum crafts a strong, introspective argument about the inherently problematic Western approach to film, literature, and art in using Cartesian perspectivalism, suggesting it erases racial identity and values in Disney's Mulan (1998) through Western ideas of authenticity and universality. However, with the release Mulan (2020), much of the discourse surrounding and within the live-action remake has changed some of the fundamental themes and meanings that gave Mulan (1998) its iconic status, warranting a critical need to revisit Hum's original work and analyze the way(s) the racialized gaze has changed since the animated Western inception of Mulan's fable. This analysis unfolds through the three following sections: (1) the implicit biases of Cartesian perspectivalism; (2) the misrepresentation of authenticity through the handling of "qi;" and (3) the troubling themes of privilege and nationalism as universal messages that are reflected in the surrounding discourse of the film's production. What sets Mulan (2020) apart from its counterparts is the increasingly difficult challenge of trying to navigate Western expectations while holding true to Eastern ideals. Unfortunately, Disney's attempt to conjoin these two worlds ultimately fails, leaving audiences with a lackluster product of "art" that is unsure of its identity as it confuses, muddies, and conflates representations of Oriental cultures with American values. Mulan (2020) doesn't change the racialized gaze; it exacerbates the critiques Hum sees in the original animated Mulan (1998).
In her critique of Mulan (1998), Hum calls the film "full of egregious inaccuracies, stereotypes, and transmutations" (116) in depicting Oriental characterizations. This scathing criticism comes in the wake of Disney's painstaking efforts to cultivate what Hum calls a "facticity of race," born from the Disney's endeavor to create an "authentic" representation of Chinese culture by sending more than thirty animators and filmmakers to China to familiarize themselves with the culture, landscape, and architecture (115). Given Disney's perfectionistic need to maintain a certain brand, efforts were made anew in the production of Mulan (2020) to tap into the financial potential and interest of the Chinese box office. The epitome of this resolution came with the all Asian casting for the film, the key casting being Yifei Liu (刘亦菲) as the titular character Mulan, a Chinese-American actress popular among Chinese audiences at the time of her casting in 2017. However, other decisions—like the choices to remove Mulan's dragon sidekick Mushu and love interest Li Shang to appease Chinese crowds and the #MeToo movement respectively—sparked backlash from international critics and the LGBTQ+ community. Further agitating the film's potential was the political discourse around the Hong Kong protests and Uyghur genocide, which seemed to be implicitly reflected in Mulan's narrative through the film's themes of privilege and nationalism. However, as Hum surmises about Disney's original Mulan, there is likewise no singular reason for Mulan (2020)'s critical failure. Yet, the shared notion of a single "authentic, essentialized, pure Chinese culture" (116) compounded with the "universal" themes maintains and reinforces the status quo of the racialized gaze.
Liu Yifei (刘亦菲)
Mulan in Mulan (2020)
Aliases: An Feng, Crystal Liu, Liu Ximeizi