Honor to Us All
Intended to be ironic, "Honor to Us All" features lyrics that instruct Mulan on how to become an ideal bride by emphasizing her physical appearance, remaining obedient to her prospective husband and eventually bearing children.
Parodying traditional gender roles and cultural expectations of women, "Honor to Us All" has been identified as an East Asian-influenced song that heavily incorporates Asian instrumentation, more-so than any other musical number in the film.
[6] Author Jennifer Fleeger wrote in her book Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through the Machine (2014) that the studio's decision to cast Nixon, an American who had previously done similar work as the singing voices of a Puerto Rican and Englishwoman in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and My Fair Lady (1964), respectively, as an elderly Chinese woman "speaks volumes about the desired singing voices of these supposedly diverse new characters.
[16] Throughout the musical sequence, Mulan is taken to various shops and stores in the village,[17] in which several women take turns painstakingly bathing, dressing and applying makeup to the character,[17] one of whom compares her to a "sow's ear".
[20] The women advise Mulan that she will successfully find a husband by focusing on her physical appearance and striving to be an obedient housewife,[21] instructing her that primping is a key ingredient in their "recipe for instant bride" and teaching her that marrying well is the only way for a girl to honor her family.
[5] The sequence also features a prayer from Mulan to her ancestors, during which she asks that they help her not disappoint them or herself,[12] reminding herself that failure to conform to society's expectations of her as a young woman will ultimately result in "uproot[ing] her family tree.
[24] Similar to Disney's Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995) before it, Mulan begins with an opening song that establishes the film's location, setting and cultural characteristics, in this case "Honor to Us All".
[25] According to Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability (2013) author Johnson Cheu, the power of the Matchmaker's decision "emphasizes the necessity of heterosexual approbation in order to secure a place in society.
[19] Consequence of Sound's Dominick Suzanne-Mayer cited "Honor to Us All" as an example of Mulan spending a significant portion of the film at the mercy of other characters, framing "her preparation rituals for courtship as a gauntlet of demands from ... her entire village" while "instructing her about how important it is for her to be complacent and attentive.
"[18] Tim Brayton, writing for the film review website Alternate Ending, believes that the song is intended to demonstrate "the idea that Imperial China was founded on unusually strong patriarchal principles".
[26] Author Phyllis Frus, writing in her book Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works (2010), observed that the musical number offers examples of women and men occupying different roles in society: "a man fights for his country, whereas a woman gives birth to sons.
[13] According to Sputnikmusic's Irving Tan, the song "opens and recounts the massive struggle that girls in the Han Dynasty had to face due to the repressive cultural norms of that age.
[28] Hough Believes that "feminine-centric songs" that appear during the beginning of the film, such as "Honor to Us All", are eventually abandoned and replaced by more masculine numbers to indicate that Mulan "has become, as far as the audience is concerned, 'a man.
[11] The Disney Song Encyclopedia author Thomas S. Hischak identified "Honor to Us All" as an "Oriental-flavored number" that features "a trace of Asian sound" courtesy of Wilder and Zippel's songwriting and Fowler and Nixon's performances,[12] the latter of whom sings using a "lilting soprano".
[34] In Nixon's verse, Grandma Fa bestows traditional Chinese gifts upon Mulan that are intended to make her more appealing to a man,[5] which is followed by a prayer performed solo by Salonga.
[35] Identified by Hough as an "ultra-feminine satirical number",[22] its "witty" lyrics are intended to be highly ironic,[14][36][37] expressing that a daughter can only honor herself and her family by marrying, stating:[17] Beginning with the line "This is what you give me to work with",[29] the performers offer an extensive list of examples and qualities required to create an ideal bride,[17] including the lyrics "Wait and see, when we're through, boys will gladly go to war for you" and "With good breeding and a tiny waist you'll bring honor to us all.
[38] Lyrically, "Honor to Us All" also makes heavy use of the literary device alliteration, as heard during its final verse "Destiny, guard our girls/And our future as it fast unfurls/Please look kindly on these cultured pearls/Each a perfect porcelain doll".
"[41] Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes Sharon Lamb was concerned that younger listeners would not understand the irony intended by the song's lyrics about women and take them seriously.
[44] In January 2017, a group of Chinese children garnered significant attention when a video of them reenacting the "Honor to Us All" musical sequence in their native language was released to the Internet and went viral.
[45] First shared by the Facebook page Disney Power,[46] the video was eventually identified as a segment from a Chinese television show that features children reenacting scenes from popular films.
[46] Praising the children's accuracy upon reviewing a video that compares the live-action reenactment to the animated original side-by-side, Refinery29s Michael Hafford wrote that the children "remind how ridiculous it is that Hollywood more or less refuses to cast non-white actors in lead roles", specifically referring to the whitewashing controversy surrounding American actors Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson's casting in the films The Great Wall (2016) and Ghost in the Shell (2017), respectively.
