Mulan was first described in an ancient poem written between the 4th to 6th centuries AD. According to this tale, she was a female warrior who disguised herself as a male soldier in the Imperial Chinese army, secretly taking the place of her conscripted father. After bravely fighting against nomadic hordes along the frontier, she ultimately returned home as a war hero.
The ancient story of Mulan has received multiple modern media adaptations, as listed below.
Oldest known version:
- The Ballad of Mulan, the earliest known (if not the original) version of the story.
Adaptations and Derivative Works:
Anime & Manga- In the first two Cantonese dubs of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Nausicaä's name was changed to Mulan despite the film having little to do whatsoever with the actual story of Mulan. Nausicaä's name would be restored in the Blu-ray redub.
Comic Books
- Deadpool Kills the Classics: Hua Mulan is one of the special literary characters hired by Sherlock Holmes to track down Deadpool before he destroys the entire literary world.
Films — Animation
- Mulan (1998): An animated film made by Disney.
- The franchise it spawned.
- The Secret of Mulan (1998): A UAV Entertainment mockbuster version of the Disney movie.
Films — Live-Action
- Hua Mulan Joins the Army (1927): A silent film directed by Li Pingqian.
- Mulan Joins the Army (1928): A film directed by Hou Yao.
- Mulan Joins the Army (1939): A film written by Ouyang Yuqian and directed by Bu Wancang.
- Lady General Hua Mu-lan (1964): A Hong Kong opera musical movie.
- Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (2009): A Chinese live-action film.
- Mulan (2020): A Disney live-action adaptation of their own 1998 animated film.
Literature
- The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan (2019): A young adult novel by Sherry Thomas.
- Mulan: The True Story (2020): A historically accurate literary adaptation set in Northern Wei, with only a few errors in adapting, by Daniyar Z. Baidaralin
Live-Action TV
- A Tough Side of a Lady (1998): A Hong Kong drama series starring Mariane Chan as Hua Mulan.
Theatre
- The Xu Wei play The Heroine Mulan Goes to War in Her Father's Place (c. 1580). It did a lot to flesh out the very bare-bones story laid out in the original ballad, and elements that it invented have often been maintained in later adaptations. Perhaps most significantly, it was the first work to establish "Hua" as Mulan's surname.
Videogame
- Smite (2014): Hua Mulan is a playable character as part of the Chinese Pantheon.