Customer Reviews

China's Bravest Girl: The Legend of Hua Mu Lan

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is actually one of my favorite books. I have owned a copy since it first came out, and keep having to buy new ones because my student's also love it. I am a 4th grade teacher, and when a student leaves my class, I allow the child to pick a favorite book - any book I own - to take as my gift. The kid's usually choose either China's Bravest Girl, or El Chino by Allen Say. That says a lot for a book! The story and illustrations engage the students strongly - they love the images, the poetry, the Chinese character. The story gives them hope that they too can be heroes and change the world. Please get yourself and your children a copy - in fact get two - you will end up giving one away.

The Chinese language text seems to be "politically correct" hack retelling from the People's Republic, filled with jingoistic sentiments. I would not want to read the Chinese version to my kids. The English language version softens and rephrases some of the more irritating parts of the Chinese text, the artwork is OK, and young children actually seem to LIKE the simplistic rhyming, so I'm assigning three stars. If you want a close translation of the original poem with wonderful illustrations, buy Jeanne Lee's book. If you want a good prose retelling of the story with lots of details added (the original poem is somewhat elliptical in phrasing and short in detail) then buy Robert San Souci's book.

This story is told in the format of a song. The song is the re-telling of the legend of Mulan. The story is close to disneys version of Mulan, but has several differences. One difference is that Mulan and her family decide together that Mulan shall go in her fathers place. Mulan fights in many battles intead of just one. No mention of her being hurt and then her gender being discovered. She is discovered when she returned home and another soldier who was traveling with her finds out her true gender.

Prior to reading this to my 5 yo, we discussed how this was the original story. It sparked a discussion on how sometimes a book and a movie can be very different. It was a hit with my child. One that I expect to read again and again. A nice addition to any Mulan fans library.

Since Disney has appropriated another folk tale, I think that it's important to expose your kids to preDisney tellings. This version of the story is really well done. It has some of the qunt, old fashioned feel of the original chinese (so I am told), only toned down for a young audience. It is well illustrated, and is far more historically accurate than the movie. My 6 year old son has requested it for a bedtime story every night since we bought it.

I first learned about Mulan from Disney.... like many other people and since then I have found several books about Mulan. I like this book and think that it is a book worthy of checking and and owning.

First of all I want to say that the illustrations are beautiful! I read somewhere that they where done using watercolors... whatever Tomie Arai did and worked worked. She certainly captured brilliant jewel tone colors, Asian people that looked well drawn with pretty almond eyes and not slits like some illustrators do. The pages come alive for me.

The story itself starts with an Emperor asking his pipa musician to sing an "old song" for him. And so the pipa player chooses and begins to sing the song of the legend of young Hua Mu Lan. So this story is read in rhyme because it's a song.

What is different about this Mu Lan and Disney's Mulan is that Mulan has a younger sister and her parents know that Mulan is going to go and take her father's place in the army. Mulan gathers the things she needs for her journey but does so in a way no one would track her purchases by traveling in the 4 directions and in different towns: a horse, saddle and a whip. Mulan goes off and wins 100 battles in 10 years and she becomes a general. On her way home she asks for a strong camel to go home and travels to the south to home with her friend. She is never wounded and it is not revealed that she is a woman until Mulan dresses in a yellow dress and meets her friend.


This version is only in English and on the left hand side of each page as an area that is the story in Chinese characters. There is no pinyin for you to read so unless you know Chinese characters I can't see a vast majority of people being able to read this.... so maybe the other reviewers have a different version of this book under a different ISBN. And as far as the story being lost in translation.... I bet this is and is like any book that was written in a foreign language, much is lost in translation due to lack or words that perfectly describe it in the original text that it was written in.

Also you must remember that this ancient story has been told many times by many people, Hua Mu Lan was and is loved by the Chinese People. This is not the Disney Mulan, please understand.... I love Disney, but I also know how Disney's company can take a story and add their own little twist, like Mulan, Mary Poppins and Little Mermaid to name a few of the books that have been made into very popular movies and there by becoming favorite and sometimes the only known version unless you really dig deep and find the original version of the book.

So, what I am saying is that this is a terrific and very beautiful version of the story of Hua Mu Lan. One definite worth having in your collection.