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housewife. It would be hard for her because she was not only responsible for household but also the financial. It is because her husband who was responsible
for financial had to leave the family to serve the army. Not to mention, if her husband died in the battle field she would be a widow. Consequently, she would
carry this job in her lifetime.
4.2.2 Limitation of Women’s Domestics Roles
China is well-known have strong system patriarchal in family and society. It means that men are regarded have higher position than women. They consider
women are inferior to men. It is also influenced by Confucianism which teaches women are not equal to men. Based on these two concepts, we will know directly
the position of women in Chinese culture. Inequality between men and women in China is happened in social life.
Men and women have different position to serve their emperor and defend her country. In serving their emperor and defending their country, men have to join
army; however, it is very contrast with women whose job just bear a son. It can be seen from the datum below.
6 Fa Li
: We all must serve our emperor who guards us from the Huns.
A man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing a son.
07:54 –
08:05 The sentence ‘we all must serve our emperor who guards us from the
Huns. A man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing a son’ can be conclude that even in bearing a baby, women did not have freedom. They had to bear a son in order
to able to serve their emperor. By bearing a son a family would get honor because
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their children could serve imperial army. They also got honor because they could serve the emperor well. It is really contrast if they bore a girl. They would feel shy
and as have been explained in the chapter two, often a girl baby was killed by her parents.
4.2.3 Prohibition of Public Speech
Everyone in this world has individual right; for instance, the right to live, the right to get liberty, and freedom to speech. This right is applied both to men
and women as well. In China as the film shows; however, women did not have freedom of
public speech, especially in men’s presence. They had to keep silent in a discussion. They were prohibited to interrupt or give opinion. If they broke the
rule, they would dishonor their family. It can be seen from the quotation below. 7
Fa Zhou : I am ready to serve the Emperor.
Mulan :
Father, you can’t go.
Fa Zhou
: Mulan
Mulan :
Please sir, my father has already fought bravely.
Chi Fu
: Silence You would do well to teach your daughter to
hold her tongue in a man’s presence.
Fa Zhou
: Mulan, you dishonor me.
15:48 –
16:05 The situation above happened when Chi Fu deliver proclamation to
citizens that China was invaded by The Huns. By order of the emperor, one man from every family had to serve imperial army. Fa Zhou was Mulan’s Father. He
did not have a son in his family. There was no one from his family replaced him because he did not have a son. Accordingly, he had to go to war even though he
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had been old and weak. Mulan was surprised because her father had to join the army, whereas his condition was no longer possible to go.
Based on this case, Mulan interrupted what the emperor’s council said when he was proclaiming the notice. We can take evidence from the sentence
‘please sir, my father has already fought bravely’. From this sentence we see that Mulan besought in order her father allowed not to join the army. It is because her
father had joined the army when he was still young. She thought her father had been old enough and now it was the turn for the younger. Then Chi Fu replied
‘silence You would do well to teach your daughter to hold her tongue in a man’s presence’. It shows that Chi Fu reprimanded Mulan. He asked Fa Zhou to teach
his daughter politeness. Then Fa Zhou told Mulan ‘Mulan, you dishonor me’. It shows that Fa Zhou felt disappointed to Mulan. It is because Mulan had
interrupted what the emperor’s council said in the men’s presence. Actually Mulan’s purpose was well because she helped her father. However, Fa Zhou
thought that Mulan had dishonored her family.
4.2.4 Prohibition to Join Armed Forces
