Geek out? The Woman as Warrior

Shu Lien in combat with Jiao Long (Jen Yu)

It has to be said that this post about the woman as warrior (from here WaW) is straying a bit far from the stated aims of my blog, in not really having anything to do with either design, coffee, gardening, or cultural dislocation. So be it. This is what I want to write about right now!

When viewing television or movies in Hong Kong, I am always a bit biased towards trying to find movies either from Hong Kong, or that are in Cantonese, just as I might once have sought out Australian movies - it is about connecting with a sense of place. So the other day I was watching a movie from 2009 called 'Hua Mulan'. This is about the famous story of a young woman who joined the army in place of her sick father, and ended up saving China and becoming a famous General. I thought this version of the movie, co-directed by Jingle Ma and Wei Dong, was quite compelling, focusing on the horrors of war, the difficulties soldiers face, and the impossibilities of managing your emotions in such a debilitating environment. I always find it inspiring to see a woman acting as a warrior because it disrupts our conventional ideas about gender, and forces us to confront one of the last taboos, women fighting on the front line. I am probably just as interested in films where men confront one of their taboos - taking care of children and taking real responsibility for house work - but most of the latter films tend to be played for comic effect (think, Kindergarten Cop, Daddy Daycare), rather than heroic, such as 'Hua Mulan'. I haven't seen the Disney version, but if someone wants to give an opinion on it, please do.

The most compelling vision of the WaW is in the movie, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee and based, I believe, on a series of stories popular about fifty years ago in Hong Kong. This movie has three women warriors, Shu Lien, Jiao Long and Jade Fox, all with complex storylines, and individual styles. From the first scene, which opens on a cart moving through Beijing, in 1779, the sense of the history and richness of Chinese culture really hits me, and I am swept up in the story. Mostly, though, I just love the character of Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh, apparently a genuinely competent martial artist herself), whose nobility of character, subtle appreciation of diplomacy and deep-seated wisdom shines through the whole movie. If you have never seen the movie, at least do me the favour of following this link to the fight scene between Shu Lien and Jiao that uses this not as an excuse for action (though it is that) but as a way of demonstrating the essential differences between the two warriors. Watch as Shu Lien demonstrates phenomenal competence with multiple weapons, and fights an uphill battle against the 'mystical' sword that Jen has wrongfully stolen. As if this wasn't enough, the character of Dark Cloud, a sweet and funny young man who falls in love with Jiao, simply makes the movie that much better. If you see only one martial arts movie in your life, make it this one.

Of course, the WaW phenomenon also has a strong presence in novels, with my personal favourite being 'The Deed of Paksenarrion' by Elizabeth Moon. Intriguingly, the author is a former US marine, which perhaps lends her narrative a little more realism and grit about the mundane details of military life. Mostly it is an inspiring story that never fails to bring tears to my eyes, no matter how many times I have read it before.

Most of these WaW texts, both novels and movies, exist for me in the shadow of Maxine Hong Kingston's iconic feminist novel, 'The Woman Warrior'. This part-autobiography, part-novel helped shaped the women's movement of the 1970s, by exploring issues of women's power given the constraints of gender and race. Which circles me neatly back to the beginning of the blog, because one of the stories told by the protagonist's mother, in the book, is that of Mulan, which is a very old Chinese folk tale, and the very story that inspired this blog post in the first place. I don't know whether it was reading this book that started me on my secret, or not-so-secret, love of the WaW meme. Perhaps it was having a feisty feminist twin sister, who always won all of our battles, no matter the place or the time. Whatever the reason, I love to feel wrenched out of the everyday reality of gender relations in the 21st century, and forced to imagine a life with more possibilities for everyone.