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system the male members of the family, consisting of the grandfather, the father, and sons have decisive power concerning the family property and affairs. Mente
1994:31 says that a father in a family is an autocrat. Mente also adds in the same pages that his words and desires are law.
In ancient Chinese culture, men have been considered as honored people. Men are considered to have higher positions than women. So, if a family has a
son, that family is considered as an honored family. It is caused that at that time men were considered to be able to give significance things to their country than
women. Therefore, women were regarded as nothing. Based on this case, I am interested in discussing gender inequality in the
ancient Chinese society so that I, as English Literature student, would like to explore the social and cultural problems which existed in China through a film
entitled Mulan. The phenomenon that appears in this film is profoundly related to my concern because it tells us about the social life that existed in the Chinese
past. However, besides telling about invaders that invaded China, it also tells about the problems faced by women. Nevertheless, the issue that I think need to
be learnt is why ancient Chinese women’s rights were restricted and how the narration of the film presents the struggle against this restriction.
1.2 Reasons for Choosing Topic
In The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
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brotherhood http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiUniversal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights.
From the statement above, I have some reasons why I chose this topic to be analyzed as my study. The reasons are:
1 Women are also God’s creature so they may not be treated as inferior
to men and they have to be treated equally. Thus a voice about equality is needed.
2 Mulan is an enjoyable film making this film is popular because it tells
about the power of women. 3
This film is not discussed yet by any English Students. So, it will be worth discussing it.
1.3 Statement of Problem
In order not to discuss something irrelevant, I limit and focus my study on the following problems
1 What problems are faced by women in this film?
2 How does women’s struggle support national defense right as shown in
Mulan?
1.4 Objective of the Study
According to the formulation of the problem above, I can take objective of the study that are elaborated as follows
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1 To give information about the problems faced by Chinese women in
this film. 2
To elaborate how women’s struggle support national defense right as shown in Mulan.
1.5 Significance of the Study
Related to the objective of the study above, this analysis is expected to give knowledge and advantage to the readers such as
1 To give information about the gender equality between men and
women in Chinese especially in national defense. 2
To give contribution to the viewers of this film to understand the film better.
3 Hopefully that this analysis could be used by other researcher as
references in doing their works in the same topic. 4
For the writers, the purpose of this study is to fulfill one of requirements to get degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Department.
1.6 Outline of Study
