Disney's live action Mulan would've sucked even if it was 100% historically accurate/didn't misuse qi, because its lead actors are pro-police fascism and it erases all the ways the animated was a catalyst for queer trans AsAm kids figuring out their cultural and individual IDs.

As an aside, I firmly believe that BD Wong, one of the few out gay AsAm actors on tv at the time, voice acting Shang, and Shang becoming a bisexual icon for AsAm millennials is no coincidence. Splitting him into one heteronormy father figure and one rando w/no chemistry is...????

When queer AsAms first expressed disappointment w/no Shang and no songs (where the bulk of queertext happened), we were told "Shang wasn't in the original legend so stfu. This is more historically accurate" w/e that means for a LEGEND that's been retold and changed many times.

It's not lost on me who gets to steer the convo on "Chinese authenticity" here. Every time big Western media rep of China comes up, there might as well be a glaring neon sign that reads: "Mainland thoughts only, 2nd+ gen diaspora gtfo."

Anways. This sucks irony's balls. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/asia/hong-kong-protests-elections-arrest-intl/index.html