Mulan in China and America: From Premodern to Modern

摘要

ABSTRACTMulan legend has traveled from Chinese culture to America undergoing the process of cultural filtration. Compared with Mulan in classical Chinese literature, the system of representations behind Mulan in America has undergone variation. But how and why does it vary? And what is the significance of the variation? This paper is going to analyze the cause of the variation of Mulan by reviewing the changes and development in both China and America from the perspective of the Variation Theory of Comparative Literature. This paper claims that Mulan has developed into a new system of representations via cultural filtering and authors’ reinterpreting when traveling to America. Yet, the cultural codes behind Mulan that have variated do not merely reveal the differences between Chinese and American culture but more importantly the difference between premodern and modern ethics, between ancient China and the modern West.摘要花木兰传奇从中国文化旅行至美国经历了种种文化过滤。相比中国古典文学中的花木兰形象，美国语境中的花木兰所呈现出的表象体系已然变异。问题是，花木兰所呈现的表象体系是如何变异的？为何变异？变异的意义何在？本文以比较文学变异学为视角，试分析中美语境中花木兰所承载的文化意蕴的流变之因。文章指出，花木兰通过作家阐释、影视创作移植于美国文化中，并经过文化过滤，甚至是有意改造，产生了变异，进而被赋予了新的内涵，转变为新的表象体系。然而，花木兰背后的文化符码在中美语境中的流变，揭示出来的并非仅仅是中西文化之间的差异，更是前现代与现代伦理、古代中国与现代西方之间的差异。