9th Post- "The Female Individual and the Empire", by Feng Lan

In the critical essay, "The Female Individual and the Empire", by Feng Lan, the writers research approach reminded me of the final research paper my classmates, and I, are writing in our English 1012 class. Lan focuses on different interpretations of the poem, Mulan, with two different claims. "First, initially a hybrid product of multicultural... Second, Kingston's English rendition is a "reconstruction" of Chinese history..." (Lan, 230) According to Lan, throughout the many years different aspects in each version were altered, one influence being political influence. Many writers write stories according to what is historically happening in their society. This is one suggestion as to why, Mulan, has been altered. Being a female myself, this essay caught my attention because it explains the different viewpoints the Chinese society had for women.