ABSTRACT
With its unique cultural contributions and rich cultural connotations, Chinese culture has become increasingly influential in the world, so how to spread Chinese culture has become the proposition of the times. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to find the differences between self-shaping and other-shaping and find the best way to adapt and disseminate traditional Chinese culture. Based on both quantitative and qualitative research, this study uses film subtitles, audience reviews, and interview material as samples to analyze the domestic movie Nezha: Birth of the Devil and the foreign movie Mulan. The results show that filmmakers prefer a similar theme and also use many cultural symbols, but have a very different emphasis on movie adaptations. Moreover, both domestic and foreign audiences haven’t formed an inclusive attitude to appreciate foreign movies; therefore, corresponding strategies should be adopted to better suit the audience’s interest and innovate traditional culture. In this way, this study can provide a new perspective for the adaptation and dissemination of traditional Chinese culture.
摘要
中国文化以其独特的文化底蕴和丰富的文化内涵日益在世界上产生影响，因此如何传播中国文化成为时代命题。鉴于此，本研究的目的是找出自我塑造和其他塑造方式之间的区别，并找到适应和传播中国传统文化的最佳途径。基于定量和定性研究，本研究以电影字幕、观众评论和访谈材料为样本，分析了国产电影《哪吒之魔童降世》和国外电影《花木兰》。研究结果表明，电影制作人更偏爱相似的主题，也使用了许多文化符号，但对电影改编的重视程度截然不同。此外，国内外观众对外国电影的欣赏还没有形成一种包容的态度，因此，应采取相应的策略，更好地迎合观众的兴趣，创新传统文化。由此，我们的研究可以为中国传统文化的改编和传播提供一个崭新的视角.
1. Introduction
In recent years, due to cross-cultural communication, Chinese culture, with its unique cultural contributions and rich cultural connotations, has become increasingly influential in the world. Therefore, how to spread Chinese culture has become the proposition of the times. The creation and dissemination of movies, the cultural carrier, has attracted wide attention. In 2019 and 2020, the release of two domestic and foreign movies, Nezha: Birth of the Devil and Mulan aroused a wide discussion on the adaptation of traditional Chinese culture.
Because of the influence of globalization, the generalization of culture and cultural hybridity also occur (Chen and Liu, “A Study on Chinese Audience’s Receptive Behavior” 135). Plentiful studies focused on the cultural aspect of the movies and generated many meaningful findings, which gives us a better understanding of the problems and coping strategies in the adaptation of traditional Chinese culture. They respectively the changes in the image of Nezha in China (Shen et al., “Devil or God” 159–200) and the different interpretations of the cultural identity of Mulan in Disney films (Zhao et al., “Hybridising the Cultural Identity of Mulan” 130–136). However, most of the studies do not compare these two films to conclude the difference between self-shaping and other-shaping. Moreover, these studies only analyze the movies from one singular perspective. They haven’t combined the influences of both filmmakers and audiences on movies. If we can make a comparison between these two films, we will get important lessons from the different emphasis of Chinese and American adaptations of traditional Chinese stories. As a result, this study compares the domestic movie Nezha: Birth of the Devil and the foreign movie Mulan and analyzes them from the perspectives of both the filmmakers and the audience.
The purpose of this study is to find the differences between self-shaping and other-shaping by quantitative and qualitative research. Specifically, based on abundant samples including film subtitles, audience reviews, and interview material, this study will first discuss the differences between Chinese and American adaptations from the aspect of the filmmakers. Then, we will analyze the effect of these differences on movies from the aspect of the audience. In this process, we make some important discoveries. For one thing, Chinese and American filmmakers prefer a similar theme and also use many cultural symbols, but they have a very different emphasis on movie adaptations, although American filmmakers seem to put more attention on the cultural aspect, they don’t receive a good response. For another thing, domestic and foreign audiences haven’t formed an inclusive attitude to enjoy foreign movies. Besides, they seem to be more concerned with the cultural significance behind character costume and scene design. To address these problems, movie filmmakers should take seriously the issue of film creation in cross-cultural communication and find the best way to balance different cultures.
This study reveals the similarities and differences between self-shaping and other-shaping in movies and provides a new perspective for the adaptation and dissemination of traditional Chinese culture. Hopefully our study can make the filmmakers know more about the problems existing in adaptions of traditional Chinese culture and cross-cultural communication and urge the audience to take more objective attitudes toward foreign movies.
2. Literature review
Traditional Chinese culture has a long history, which is the foundation and blood of the nation. Nowadays, with the rapid development of the society, Chinese cultural influence is gradually increasing. The film industry is constantly exploring ways to integrate and innovate with traditional cultural elements. Not only is the Chinese film industry experimenting, but the American film industry is also trying to put a new spin on traditional Chinese characters. The following literature review focuses on the changes and innovations of traditional characters in both Chinese and American films and their differences.
Movies adapted from Chinese fairy tales are coming one after another; this article takes Nezha as an example. Nezha: Birth of the Devil transforms traditional Chinese culture and organically integrates it into the film creation, combining traditional themes with new expressions and transforming local culture through international methods. Therefore, the film has strong characteristics of the times while retaining the traditional culture, which makes it gain the psychological identity of the vast audience. Whyke and Mugica (“Calling for a Hero” 389–409) note that, from Journey to the West to the Investiture of the Gods, from China’s first color animation The Monkey King to the most recent animated films Nezha: Birth of the Devil and New Gods: Nezha Reborn; the image, character, and symbolism of Nezha in the film not only change greatly but also undergo a subversive innovation. Judging by the high domestic box office, it can be said that this innovation has been a success. Similarly, some scholars analyze the success of the domestic animated film Nezha. Jin and Wang (“Taming the Rebellious Child” 39–54) believe that Nezha innovatively subverts the traditional character image, reshapes classical culture, and mixes Chinese and Western culture with ancient and modern culture to arouse the emotional resonance of viewers. They further point out that the change of Nezha has constantly evolved with the changing historical, social, and cultural context by analyzing three Chinese Animations of the Socialist and Post‑Socialist Eras. As a cultural symbol, Nezha will be given more meaning in the collision and blending of Chinese and foreign cultures.
The change in Mulan’s image is also an important carrier of Chinese and American cultural integration. After the story of Mulan was introduced to the United States in the late 19th century, different forms of expression such as translation, novels, picture books, and films appeared successively. Disney shot the movie Mulan three times based on the theme of Chinese folk tales, which set off the climax of Chinese cultural communication. According to Yang (“Mulan in China and America” 45–59), as one of the ancient Chinese cultural codes, Mulan is a representation system of the traditional Chinese values of “Xiao” (filial piety) and “Zhong” (loyalty) in the patriarchal society. But the meaning is different in Chinese-American writer Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Disney movies. This is supported by Zhao et al. (“Hybridising the Cultural Identity of Mulan” 130–136), who point out that in these adaptations, while Mulan’s professional and class identities have been preserved, other aspects of the protagonist’s cultural identity have largely changed. As a result, the original core values and spirit of folk story characters are either wasted or completely lost. In its place is a hybrid character with a new identity marked by elements of a transnational culture. While retaining the original characteristics of Mulan, Disney creatively incorporated Mulan into mainstream American ideology and cultural values in the 1990s (Hsiung, “Mulan’s Travel From Ballad to Movie” 69–83).
Although both the Chinese and American film industries have been trying to transform Chinese traditional culture, overseas dissemination has not achieved the expected effect. Nezha: Birth of the Devil topped the Chinese mainland box office in 2019, but received a lukewarm response abroad. It is not difficult to see that there is a problem concerning cultural discount in the process of cross-cultural communication of domestic animated films. Nezha is not alone in the face of cultural discounts, so is Mulan. Zhao et al. (“Hybridising the Cultural Identity of Mulan” 130–136) claim that Disney’s inexorable trend in extracting various elements from a diversity of cultures provided a fresh perspective in the repackaging of multicultural classical tales. However, this change is not popular with the Chinese. Mulan received many more positive reviews overseas, but only got 4.9 points on China Douban Film Critic. In fact, Mulan has completed the mission of cross-cultural communication, but the cultural values in the film that are different from Chinese ones made it unable to gain the psychological recognition of the Chinese audiences (Xu and Tian, “Cultural Deformations and Reformulations” 182–210). Chen et al. (“The Creation and Operation Strategy of Disney’s Mulan,” 2751) further explain that film products have corresponding cultural discounts in the operation process due to the existence of cultural misreading. Based on this, Liu (“The Chinese and American Elements” 99–102) suggests that both the propaganda of national culture and the transformation of foreign culture need to be based on the in-depth understanding and research of national history and cultural origin so that we can avoid cultural misleading and cultural discount.
Arguably, absorbing diverse cultures and repackaging classic stories has been the general trend. Researches on the adaptations of Chinese traditional culture mainly focus on the two separate films, but lack of overall awareness and comparison between the two. There is also no corresponding analysis of domestic and foreign audiences’ responses to the adaptations. Therefore, this article focuses on the comparison of Chinese and American adaptations, the reasons and the significances for them, and make recommendations for the future. This article analyzes the following questions:
According to Chinese and American adaptations, what are the similarities and differences between self-shaping and other-shaping?
What is the effect of these changes in the movies?
Are these adaptations beneficial to Chinese traditional culture transmission? And how to adapt it better?
The research significance of the above questions lies in finding a better way for the adaptation and dissemination of Chinese traditional culture.
3. Research methods
This study has selected movie subtitles, audience evaluations from the films from well-known domestic and foreign film review websites, as well as the interview materials of the filmmakers as the research objects. After sorting out the content of film reviews contained in it, the chart was drawn for data analysis. This study mainly used qualitative research methods combined with quantitative statistical analysis, hoping to compare the differences and influences of traditional Chinese culture in Chinese and American adaptations.
For the filmmaker, what the director and the chief creative team think directly determines the direction of the film. Therefore, this study combined the interview records of the filmmakers for analysis. In addition, for the audience, it is divided into professional film critics and ordinary consumers. This study analyzed their comments and ratings to observe the communication effect of the two films at home and abroad.
3.1. Corpus
This study employed eight purpose-built corpora composed of movie subtitles, audience evaluations, and interview materials. The following samples were used in this study:
Sample (1): The subtitles of Nezha: Birth of the Devil. It was downloaded from https://subhd.tv/a/509983. The subtitles consist of 7702 words, and the movie runs for 1 hour 50 min.
Sample (2): The subtitles of Mulan. (The subtitles of Mulan from https://subhd.tv/a/519129.) Mulan’s transcript is 5663 words and runs for 1 hour 50 min.
Sample (3): Online reviews of Nezha: Birth of the Devil by Chinese users posted on Douban.com.
This study collected reviews of the movie Nezha: Birth of the Devil on Douban.com, and we finally obtained 614,542 short reviews and 13,562 movie reviews. Among short reviews, 4% were negative, 9% were average and 87% were positive. Among movie reviews, there were 365 one-star movie reviews, 368 two-star movie reviews, 1435 three-star movie reviews, 3866 four-star movie reviews, and 6802 five-star movie reviews. The overall rating was 8.4.
Sample (4): Online reviews of Mulan by Chinese users posted on Douban.com. We obtained 154,813 short reviews and 3402 movie reviews. Among short reviews, 52% were negative, 25% were average and 13% were positive. Among movie reviews, there were 475 one-star movie reviews, 513 two-star movie reviews, 612 three-star movie reviews, 415 four-star movie reviews, and 579 five-star movie reviews. The overall rating was 4.9.
Sample (5): Online reviews of Nezha: Birth of the Devil by foreign users posted on IMDB. We obtained 101 user reviews and 27 critic reviews from it. The overall rating was 7.4.
Sample (6): Online reviews of Mulan by foreign users posted on IMDB. We obtained 3000 user reviews and 266 critic reviews from it. The overall rating was 5.7.
Sample (7): Transcripts of interviews with director Yu Yang and the cast and crew about Nezha: Birth of the Devil. It included their understanding of Nezha’s story and ideas for his new image.
Sample (8): Transcripts of interviews with director Niki Caro and the cast and crew about Mulan. The information included selecting the protagonist, reflections on Mulan’s traditional image, and explorations of her inner characters.
3.2. Data extraction
All data was extracted in April 2023. This study used Octopus for data extraction.
When collecting samples of the movie subtitles, all movies were watched in their entirety multiple times by the researcher, who checked the accuracy of the downloaded subtitles.
When collecting online reviews, we manually screened these samples, and the invalid content that had no clear meaning and nothing to do with these movies was deleted.
As for the interview materials, this study searched for the keywords, Nezha, Director Yu Yang, etc., and screened the information related to these movies. All the interview materials consisted of video and text materials.
3.3. Retrieval methods
3.3.1. Collocate retrieval
The extraction of the collocates related to the protagonist’s name, characteristics, and theme can help us analyze the theme of the movie, as well as the audience’s evaluation and emotional direction.
3.3.2. Keyword
According to the emphasis of these films, we carefully selected several keywords related to the character and the theme of the film and retrieved them respectively in the film lines, audience comments, and interviews.
3.3.3. High-frequency words
By retrieving the established corpus, we found high-frequency words. After removing irrelevant vocabulary, we obtained the audience’s cognition, evaluation, and relevant dimensions, which laid a foundation for future research analysis.
3.3.4. Word sentiment orientation
This study used Weiciyun, an online word frequency statistical analysis tool, to help analyze the word sentiment orientation.
3.4. Analysis
As mentioned above, this study analyzed samples from three different perspectives to establish a comprehensive comparison of the similarities and differences among these films. This study employed the model of Chen and Yang (“The Creation and Operation Strategy of Disney’s Mulan,” 2751) to conduct data analysis.
For the movie subtitles, through the retrieval of keywords and high-frequency words, we got the gist of the film and the characteristics of the protagonist, so that we could compare the emphasis of domestic and foreign films on the transformation of Chinese traditional characters.
The online reviews of these films accurately reflected the audience’s thoughts. According to the audience’s positive and negative comments, we extracted the keywords and collocations related to them. Then, we divided them into three dimensions: content and connotation, the image and characteristics of the protagonist, and the story creation. Through this, we could study the audience’s preferences for such films and explore the differences between domestic and foreign communication.
For the interview materials, they were the embodiment of the ideas of the filmmaker. The analysis of the emphasis of the film’s filmmakers was divided into four aspects: culture, character, audience, and value. That would help explain the differences between movies from the aspect of the filmmakers.
4. Results
Based on the data mentioned above, this study traced and analyzed the adaptations of these two movies.
4.1. Similarities and differences between Chinese and American adaptations
4.1.1. Movie subtitles
In order to compare the creation of movies, their subtitles were collected first, and the keywords were shown in . After excluding the irrelevant lexical items from the keyword lexical items, the results were as follows:
Table 1. Keywords in Mulan and Nezha: Birth of the Devil.
By integration and induction, indicated the three categories of keywords. First of all, it was apparent from this table that the words that appeared the most were the names of the main characters, Nezha and Mulan, respectively. Secondly, there were a lot of words related to its plot development. For instance, “army” and “warriors” in Mulan reflected the military life of Mulan who joined the army for her father. Similarly, “pearl” and “pill” were also the clues to the plot of Nezha: Birth of the Devil. Finally, these keywords could reflect the main themes of the movies: Mulan’s loyalty, filial piety and feminism, and Nezha’s struggle against fate. The strong consistency of the types of keywords suggested that both movies pay nearly equal attention to the three aspects. To a large extent, this reflected that the creative principles of the filmmakers are similar. This conclusion was in line with the findings of Chen and Liu (“A Study on Chinese Audience’s Receptive Behavior” 135).
Then, we extracted the collocates related to the protagonist’s name, characteristics, and theme. showed the results of the collocations. It reviewed the common collocates used in the two movies. For example, “Identity” was often used with “brave,” which could reflect Mulan’s character and morals in people’s minds. And “Demon” was often used with “pill,” “spirit” was often used with “pearl,” which were fixed collocates. According to the collocates we retrieved in the movie titles, there were no obvious differences between Mulan and Nezha: Birth of the Devil.
Table 2. Collocates in Mulan and Nezha: Birth of the Devil.
4.1.2. Interview materials
To further compare the similarities and differences between the two films from the aspect of creation, this study collected interview materials of the filmmakers from the website and analyzed them. The analysis results were presented in . It compared the differences in the filmmakers’ focus and showed that their emphases could be divided into four aspects:
Figure 1. Percentage of different emphases of the filmmakers in the interviews.
Firstly, the cultural aspect. It referred to the culture part of the interview, which reflected the filmmakers’ understanding of traditional Chinese culture. What was interesting about the data in this figure was that the American movie’s filmmakers paid 17% more attention to culture than their Chinese counterparts. The director of Mulan, Niki Caro, mentioned that their creative team came to China many times to learn Chinese culture about this story for better creation. Based on their own understanding and the help of Chinese actors, they designed the main plot of the movie. They put more attention on single Chinese elements, such as the meaning of color and the symbol of the dragon. By comparison, the director of Nezha: Birth of the Devil, Yu Yang, didn’t mention too much about traditional Chinese culture in the interview, which was the opposite of what we expected. However, his film was full of traditional Chinese symbols indeed. A possible explanation was that local filmmakers were very familiar with their own culture, so they were more inclined to talk about innovation.
Secondly, the character aspect. It referred to the filmmaker’s understanding and shaping of the main character. From , it could be seen that American filmmakers’ focus on character was much lower than Chinese filmmakers. According to the interview transcript, the filmmakers believed that Mulan’s personality was “smart, strong and gentle,” so they chose Yifei Liu as the actress. They thought of Mulan as an ordinary person with courage and wisdom, not a superhero. By contrast, Nezha’s filmmakers put a lot of effort into the shaping of characters. Since this was an animated film, the redesign of Nezha was especially important. The director mentioned that he made thousands of versions of Nezha but chose the ugliest one, which was his image of the devil child.
Thirdly, the audience aspect. It referred to the filmmaker’s concern for the audience’s reaction. In this aspect, there was no obvious difference between the two sides. But Nezha’s director Yu Yang emphasized that he reshaped Nezha into a rebel who fought against his fate so as to meet the needs and interests of young people.
Fourthly, the value aspect. It referred to the filmmakers’ positioning of the movie and expectations of the spirit connotations it conveyed. As shown in , Chinese filmmakers’ emphasis on the value aspect was significantly more than 7% than American filmmakers. According to Yu Yang, he hoped to use Nezha’s struggle against fate to encourage more people to bravely face challenges in life. At the same time, he believed that domestic animation still had a long way to go, which required more effort. By comparison, the American filmmakers didn’t mention the development of the whole industry but put more attention on the kind of people Mulan represented. They said that the “determined beauty of women in action” was fully presented in the movie, which embodied the bravery, loyalty, and kindness of women. What called special attention is that a large proportion of the main creative team was made up of women. The director noted that since it was a film for women, it must be created by women.
Despite those differences, we still found that both parties put more emphasis on character and value aspects. This interesting consistency reflected similar creative principles that filmmakers may follow.
4.2. The effect of these changes in the movies: audience perception
4.2.1. Comparison between the scores of douban and IMDb for these two films
From the scores given by the audience, we could see the different reactions of Chinese and American audiences to the adaptations of the two movies; therefore, we could further analyze these changes. shows the scores of Douban and IMDb for these two films. It could reflect the different attitudes of audiences from different countries to some extent.
Table 3. Comparison between the scores of douban and IMDb for these two films (statistics as of may 2023).
As could be seen from , Mulan had a 0.8-point gap in domestic and international ratings, while Nezha: Birth of the Devil had a 1-point gap. In line with our expectations, the audience was more receptive to domestically produced movies. However, when these movies went abroad, scores dropped significantly.
Moreover, the scores of Nezha: Birth of the Devil were much higher than Mulan’s. A possible explanation was that Chinese filmmakers knew more about Chinese traditional culture, so it was much easier for them to innovate and make adaptations to their own culture. When foreign filmmakers tried to do the same thing; inevitably, they might make some mistakes, which led to cultural discount.
In addition to the scores, we could observe the influence of the two films at home and abroad from the number of raters. provided the number of raters from the two websites. From the table below, it could be concluded that Nezha: Birth of the Devil got nearly 5 times more scores than Mulan on Douban.com while it also got about 18 times fewer comments than Mulan on IMDB. This phenomenon was very interesting, and showed the same trend with previous findings – people tended to pay more attention to their domestic films.
Table 4. Comparison between the number of raters of douban and IMDb for these two films (statistics as of may 2023).
4.2.2. Movie reviews on Douban
Reviews on Douban.com were divided into short comments and film reviews, both of which could reflect users’ opinions. showed high-frequency words used in movie reviews on Douban.com. These results indicated what concerned the audience most when watching movies. As a result, it might be concluded that the Chinese audience paid more attention to three aspects of the movie: content, character, and creation. This finding accords with the previous research by Chen et al. (“The Creation and Operation Strategy of Disney’s Mulan,” 2751).
Table 5. High-frequency words in movie reviews on douban.
First of all, the aspect of content.
To Mulan, the Chinese audience generally assumed that this movie reinterpreted traditional Chinese culture. It embodied people’s filial piety toward their parents and loyalty to their country but stressed too much on Mulan’s feminism and her own identity, which was a departure from the original work. Toward this kind of cultural hybridity, most people use negative words to make reviews. presented the audience’s emotional attitude toward this film. It was apparent that over 50% of people held a negative attitude. It was the unfaithfulness to the original story that led to the intense discontent of the audience. However, this result didn’t conform to the previous research. This inconsistency might be due to the method of classification and the time of data collection.
Figure 2. The audience’s attitudes toward Mulan.
As for Nezha: Birth of the Devil, it was also an adaptation of traditional Chinese stories. According to the high-frequency words used, we found that most people thought this film reflected the self-growth of Nezha, who broke secular prejudice and dared to fight against fate. At the same time, the film also added some funny elements.
presented the audience’s emotional attitudes toward Nezha: Birth of the Devil. Surprisingly, only a quarter of the audience felt entirely positive about it and more than half of them were emotionally neutral. This result was somewhat counterintuitive. According to the movie reviews, the ending of the story and the radical changes in the relationships between the characters led to mixed reviews. What they dispute was whether these changes were beneficial to the development of traditional Chinese culture.
Figure 3. The audience’s attitudes toward Nezha: Birth of the Devil.
Secondly, the aspect of character.
It should be noted that, unlike Nezha: Birth of the Devil, Mulan is a live-action film, although it was based on two animated films. Therefore, Mulan had “star power” in China. Many reviews referred to the names of the actors, Yifei Liu, Li Gong, etc. Although there were some words like “wonderful” and “great,” considering more words like “terrible” and “awkward,” “star power” didn’t exert a good influence on people’s feelings. Therefore, people’s opinions of the actors’ performance also influenced the evaluation of the whole film.
By comparison, reviews on Nezha: Birth of the Devil are more focused on the characters themselves. The subversive change in Nezha’s image was the most discussed topic among viewers.
Thirdly, the aspect of creation.
To Mulan, the plot and setting were the most concerned part of the audience. Most negative comments mentioned that the plot and the setting were unreasonable. Moreover, to a large extent, music and special effects were thought of as strange, which were not in line with the Chinese audience’s interests. Compared with Mulan in this aspect, Nezha: Birth of the Devil was thought of as the representative of domestic animation. Its special effects and plot received more positive comments. However, western elements in the design of the characters made it different from people’s traditional positioning, which was a controversial point of the film.
4.2.3. Movie reviews on IMDB
Reviews on IMDB were composed of two parts: user reviews and critic reviews. User reviews were short but pithy, reflecting the views of the general public. Coming from external websites, comparatively speaking, critic reviews were much longer and more professional.
We ascertained the top 100 words in both reviews and after removing irrelevant words, the results were as follows. presented the word cloud of Mulan’s reviews on IMDB. To assess the figure, the study grouped words into three categories. We found that among the top 100 words, 13 positive words, like “pretty,” “good,” etc., 8 negative words, like “ridiculous,” “never,” etc., were used and the rest were neutral words. What is striking about the statistics is that compared to the low ratings the audience gave, their comments didn’t seem to exude much negative feelings.
Figure 4. The word cloud of Mulan’s reviews on IMDb.
Similarly, we used the same method to capture the top 100 words appearing in user reviews on Nezha: Birth of the Devil. provided a clear picture of these words. As could be seen from the figure below, 15 positive words, like “epic,” “enjoy,” etc., and only 4 negative words, like “not,” “only,” etc. were used, the rest were all neutral words. It reflected an objective attitude of the audience.
Figure 5. The word cloud of Nezha: Birth of the Devil’s reviews on IMDb.
To further analyze the audience’s reviews, we counted the number of user reviews at different levels to compare the two movies.
presented the number of reviews on Mulan at different levels. As could be seen from the figure, there were 703 10-star reviews, which ranked first. Interestingly, 1-star reviews ranked second, whose number was 541. The results were very strange. A plausible explanation was that the blend of Eastern and Western cultures has polarized film criticism, which caused heated debate.
Figure 6. The number of Mulan’s reviews at different levels on IMDb.
The results of Nezha: Birth of the Devil were shown in . Compared with Mulan’s result, it seemed to be more reasonable, which was in line with our expectations to a large extent. The highest number of reviews was still the number of 10-star reviews, then 9-star ones and the lowest were 2-star, 3-star, and 4-star reviews, which were just one.
Figure 7. The number of Nezha: Birth of the Devil’s reviews at different levels on IMDb.
Through this comparison, we found that although the two films got different final scores on IMDB, both of them have the highest number of 10-star reviews. Nevertheless, when we considered most words the audience used in reviews were neutral, it seemed a little difficult to understand. A possible explanation for this phenomenon was that the audience was more encouraging in their comments but more critical in their ratings.
5. Discussion
5.1. Similarities in self-shaping and other-shaping
5.1.1. Theme
First of all, both films embody the traditional Chinese culture of filial piety.
In Mulan, Mulan follows her parents’ arrangement to attend a blind date at the beginning and when receiving the draft, she chose to join the army in place of her father, which reflects her filial piety toward her parents.
Although the theme of Nezha: Birth of the Devil was mainly about the courage to fight against fate, filial piety also plays an important role in Nezha: Birth of the Devil. At the beginning of his birth, Nezha’s innate evil nature lets him destroy everything around him recklessly. It is his parents’ love that brings him back to the right path. After Nezha learns that his father uses a life-changing symbol to protect him, he decides to fight against his fate and take on his responsibility, which also reflects Nezha’s love for his parents and recognition of filial piety.
Secondly, when filmmakers adopt traditional culture, both of them add a new theme: fighting with fate. However, it produces different effects.
Mulan is fighting against discrimination against women and male power, which completely deviates from the original story, so the movie doesn’t have a good effect. Nezha fights against destiny and people’s prejudice, which is based on traditional Chinese stories and further explores new connotations, so it gets more positive comments. Whether it is the new Mulan or the new Nezha, their resistance against the prejudice of the people and the patriarchy and theocracy is the common denominator. This also reflects the creative ideas of Nezha and Mulan that have some similarities.
5.1.2. The use of cultural symbols
As mentioned before, American filmmakers talked a lot about cultural elements in the interview, according to statistics, which was far more than Chinese filmmakers. But when analyzing the movies, both of them are filled with lots of cultural symbols.
The image and symbolic meaning of the dragon is engraved in the blood of the Chinese nation and is one of the typical cultural symbols of Chinese culture. Dragon symbols are everywhere in Mulan. The decorative patterns of auspicious clouds can be seen everywhere in the works, as well as the Great Wall of China, Bridges, rivers of flower houses, pavilions and waterside pavilions, and clusters of bamboo, all reflect the charm of the East. In Nezha: Birth of the Devil, the tai chi symbol, the lotus flower pattern, and the decoration of Li’s house are also symbols of traditional Chinese culture.
5.2. Differences in self-shaping and other-shaping
5.2.1. Shaping of the main character
Both filmmakers pay a lot of attention to shaping the main character, which is also the most disputed issue among the audience.
According to our previous study, the new image of Mulan was considered a rebellious woman. Mulan is reshaped as a heroine with a strong sense of female independence, losing the original character in the ballad of Mulan and becoming a “false Mulan” that caters to the mainstream American cultural values (Pratiwi and Primasita, “Female Action Hero’s Superpower Representation” 180). It can be said that American filmmakers use Chinese traditional culture as a skin to promote its local values. It also shows that American filmmakers still have a shallow understanding of Chinese culture. Therefore, it is generally unacceptable to Chinese audiences. Unlike Disney’s previous animated films, Mulan is a live-action movie, so every detail in this movie will be treated seriously by the audience. That may be why the score of Mulan is much lower than in previous animated films.
By comparison, the new image of Nezha is more popular among the audience. While Mulan portrays a feminist fighter practicing filial piety, Nezha: Birth of the Devil portrays a rebellious character who seeks the approval of his father and sacrifices himself for others, which embodies traditional Chinese culture. This is also the reason why the new image of Nezha seems to subvert tradition but indeed it is a typical Chinese national animation work. This result accords with the conclusions of Shen et al. (“Devil or God” 159–200).
5.2.2. Film design
Film design includes character modeling, costume, setting, special effects, and so on, which plays an important role in affecting the audience’s responses (Feng, “The Dynamics of the Chinese Film Industry” 658–676).
To Mulan, the audience complains most about its costume and setting. In Mulan, the villagers live in Tulou, a traditional building in the 12th century, which is a feature of the Hakka clan in China (Manaworapong and Bowen, “Language, Gender, and Patriarchy in Mulan”). It indicates that American filmmakers set Mulan’s hometown in Fujian province, which does not correspond to reality. Moreover, Mulan is severely criticized for her blind date appearance, which resembles a Japanese geisha, not a Chinese character. The random mix of Chinese and Japanese cultures and the arbitrary placement of geographical locations reflect the indifference of American filmmakers toward Chinese traditional culture.
In this aspect, Nezha’s filmmakers seem to do better than their American counterparts. Nezha’s image in childhood uses the filmmaker’s “ugliest” version, which completely subverts the audience’s previous impression. The image of Nezha after being “demonized” is influenced by foreign cartoons and reflects the current popular aesthetic. The images of Jing Li and Yin Lady also have a clear tendency toward American animation. This innovative design is well received by most viewers, but some commentators worry that it would weaken the influence of traditional culture. In view of this, how to absorb foreign cultural factors and how much to integrate and innovate domestic and foreign cultures still need constant reflection and exploration by filmmakers.
5.2.3. Comparisons and explanations
Although there are many differences between the movies studied and the methods used, our results, to some extent, are in line with previous research. It demonstrates that there are some common problems and common interests in Chinese and Western Cultural Hybridity Films. Through our previous analysis of samples, we make these problems more specific and try to come up with solutions.
5.3. Strategy in cross-cultural transmission
According to our research on these two films, we can sum up some elements that should be paid attention to in the adaptation of traditional Chinese stories and the subsequent cross-cultural communication.
5.3.1. Understanding the original traditional story
Understanding is the first step of creation. Chinese traditional culture is extensive and profound, even for domestic filmmakers; there may be cultural misuse, not to mention foreign filmmakers. Therefore, before deciding on the subject matter of a film, movie filmmakers should have a deep understanding of the traditional cultural stories and the time and place where they take place. They need to be rooted in the real cultural soil, and only through long-term investigation and profound experience can they present the authentic local culture, which should not only be based on assumptions, preconceptions, or prejudices (Yin, “Popular Culture and Public Imaginary” 53–74). A movie involves not only the story itself but also the history and culture contained in it.
5.3.2. Culture integration and innovation
In addition to the correct understanding of traditional Chinese culture, the absorption and integration of other cultures is also a very important step for culture.
For movie filmmakers, in order to realize the commercial creation and sustainable development of cultural products, it is necessary to balance the relationship between the country of culture and the country of cultural creation so that they can find the best way to blend the culture of both sides (Chen and Liu, “A Study on Chinese Audience’s Receptive Behavior” 135). By absorbing the advantages of foreign cultures, we can bring new connotations to Chinese culture. But in this process, movie filmmakers need to grasp the scale of creation. It is not advisable to completely change the basic cultural core of the story.
5.3.3. Knowing the foreign audience and their culture
Audiences are recipients of cultural products. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the psychology of the audience before a film is made. According to our previous research, it is not difficult to see that people are more receptive to domestic movies and less enthusiastic about foreign movies. Therefore, movie filmmakers need to use social media and other platforms to understand the preferences of foreign audiences, promote their films, and improve their popularity.
6. Conclusions
To sum up, this study is based on the domestic movie Nezha: Birth of the Devil and the foreign movie Mulan to explore the similarities and differences between self-shaping and other-shaping in traditional Chinese culture. This paper takes film subtitles, audience reviews, and interview material as samples to establish the corpus and conducts research from the perspectives of the audience and filmmakers. From the aspect of filmmakers, the biggest problem is that they seem not to understand traditional culture thoroughly. Moreover, Chinese and American filmmakers choose a similar theme and also use many cultural symbols, but they have a different emphasis on movies, which causes different ways of presenting Chinese traditional culture. Although American filmmakers seem to put more emphasis on cultural aspects, they haven’t received a good response. This is largely due to their lack of understanding of Chinese culture. From the aspect of the audience, most viewers are somewhat conservative. They seem to be more inclined to watch their own films, and because of culture, they can understand their own products better. The cultural significance behind character costumes and scene design gets more attention from them. However, it doesn’t mean we cannot overcome the barriers to cross-cultural communication, so we make suggestions correspondingly. In order to avoid cultural misunderstanding and cultural discount, filmmakers need to study Chinese traditional stories thoroughly and analyze the audience’s psychology at the same time. Only by balancing two nations’ cultures and the audience’s interests, can we find a better way to create cultural products.
7. Implications
We are living in a highly globalized age, where cultural innovation and integration have become the trend. Therefore, how to innovate traditional Chinese culture and disseminate it abroad has been the proposition of the times. Our findings not only will help movie filmmakers know the principles when innovating traditional Chinese culture and cross-cultural communication, but also it will help the audience take more objective attitudes toward foreign movies. Hopefully, it can reveal the differences between self-shaping and other-shaping and provide a new perspective for the adaptation and dissemination of Chinese traditional culture.
8. Limitations
However, this study also has some limitations:
First, the modalities of research content can be more varied. This study is mainly focused on text content and is less concerned with other modalities of movie creation, such as visuals, music, cinematography, etc.
Second, the case study can be expanded. Due to the familiarity with the movies and the number limitations, this study only chooses the domestic movie Nezha: Birth of the Devil and the foreign movie Mulan as the research object. In fact, there are many national and domestic movies innovating traditional Chinese culture, which can be further analyzed.
Lastly, in addition to horizontal analysis, vertical analysis can also be made. This study only compares national and foreign movies. But Disney’s three Mulan films from different periods are also worthwhile to compare.
9. Suggestions
Therefore, future research can include three aspects: First, we can focus on more modalities of movie creations to analyze self-shaping and other-shaping more thoroughly. Secondly, it is essential to analyze other national and domestic films that are worth studying. More samples will provide more support for our results. Third, more attention should be paid to American filmmakers’ changes in adaptations of traditional Chinese culture, which can help us find some important changes in other-shaping.
Ge oloc ation inf ormation
Jinan, Shandong, China.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Junyi Zhang
Junyi Zhang is an undergraduate student at the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Shandong University. Her research focuses on linguistics, and she is committed to comparing the differences between Eastern and Western cultures through linguistic research methods.
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