Mushu

 M U S H U  BY: BIOTA HUNG

**BIOGRAPHY ** Mushu is a miniature red and orange Chinese dragon, who held a supporting role in the Disney movies //Mulan// and //Mulan II//. While Mushu is distinctly not human, he is anthropomorphized to the point where his character is very human and displays a definite personality.

Little about Mushu’s past is known other than that he used to be a guardian spirit for the Fa family. Since he failed to give proper guidance to Fa Deng, a member of Mulan’s family who was decapitated, Mushu was downgraded to the position of gong-ringer, a position with which he is most unsatisfied.

When Mulan disguises herself as a male and runs away from home to join the Chinese army and save her aging father, Fa Zhou, from fighting in an imminent war against the Huns, the spirits of her ancestors step in and order Mushu to “awaken the great stone dragon” to bring her back. Mushu’s enthusiastic attempts to awaken the stone statue of the dragon instead accidentally destroy it. While standing in the rubble of the statue, he realizes that if he goes in the place of the great stone dragon and successfully aids Mulan, he will come back as a war hero and that he could potentially regain his original position as a guardian spirit.

Mushu is sensitive about his small size and hates being compared to a lizard because he can’t “do that tongue thing.” He thinks very highly of himself and seeks to prove that fact to others. In doing so, he is impulsive, which is the source of many of his mistakes, but also cunning. While much of his behavior appears to be driven by self-interest, there are moments when he is thoughtful and big-hearted. He can communicate with other animals, such as Mulan’s horse, Khan, and her cricket, Cri-Kee. Seemingly immortal, he survives being crushed under a stone dragon head, being trampled by Mulan’s horse, and making it through an avalanche, among other incidents.

In contrast to the Psychoanalytic approach, the Neo-Analytic perspective moves away from a focus on sexuality and uses an individual’s self-perception as a way to evaluate personality. The Neo-Analytic approach was founded by Carl Jung, who theorized that there is a collective unconscious comprised of various archetypes that are universal for all human beings. The reason these archetypes developed for everyone was as emotional responses to events that occurred repeatedly (Friedman, 2009, p.113). Mushu’s behavior fits the hero and demon archetype, which symbolizes the dichotomy between conducting oneself with goodness and compassion vs. cruelty and evil (Friedman, 2009, p.115). This represents Mushu’s conflict of interests when Mulan makes plans to marry Li Shang. Once Mulan marries Shang and joins his household, the guardians of his family will replace Mushu. Worried with the prospect of losing his job, he takes on the demon archetype and tries his best to ruin Mulan’s relationship with Shang by inducing all manner of conflict between the two. Eventually, he has a change of heart and adopts the hero archetype, realizing that his happiness stems from Mulan’s happiness. He uses their marriage as a means of unifying two kingdoms and prevents three Chinese princesses from being forced into loveless arranged marriages ( //Mulan II //, 2005).
 * NEO-ANALYTIC / EGO PERSPECTIVE **

Jung theorized that extroversion and introversion are two major opposing attitudes of the mind, with one dominating the personality. Each attitude has to do with the focus of the psychic energy of the individual, with extroverts being externally grounded and introverts being internally (Friedman, 2009, p. 117). As someone who acts on a whim, Mushu creates a lot of trouble for himself and others. In the scene where Mulan first arrives at the army camp site and is meeting fellow soldiers, Mushu advises her to “Punch [one of them]. It’s how men say hello.” Yao, the other soldier, is persuaded not to start a fight, but calls Mulan “Chicken Boy.” As Mulan walks away, Mushu pops out of the back of her uniform and yells, “Chicken boy? Say that to my face, you limp noodle!” A fight ensues and Mulan is blamed for starting it, initially alienating her from the other soldiers. However, Mushu’s extroversion does serve him well in the end because his penchant towards impulsivity aided Mulan in saving China from the invading Huns ( //Mulan //, 1998) and forged a peace between two nations ( //Mulan II //<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">, 2005).

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">Alfred Adler founded individual psychology with an emphasis on motivations and perceived roles of individuals within society. An important aspect of individual psychology is the drive for power, which can often lead to the development of an inferiority complex. This concept exaggerates feelings of worthlessness in an individual. To cope with this, sometimes a superiority complex is developed to help the individual deal with their feelings of helplessness (Friedman, 2009, p. 119). Similarly, Mushu comes off as being arrogant despite all the mistakes he has made. When the spirits of the ancestors are discussing who to send to retrieve Mulan, the head spirit declares that they must send the most powerful, a “real dragon.” Mushu believes they are talking about him, when clearly they were not ( //<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">Mulan //<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">, 1985).

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17pt; line-height: 200%;">HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE ** <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">The Humanistic approach is concerned with the human existence, emphasizing values and the worth of the individual. One of Mushu’s main motives is to prove his worth to himself and to others. He does that by trying repeatedly to “be all that he can be” and consistently holds a view where happiness through personal growth is emphasized as a goal (Friedman, 2009, p. 296).

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">One prominent contributor to humanism was Carl Rogers, who theorized that individuals are always attempting to grow and become better versions of themselves, but that people must actively strive for it to make it happen. He created Rogerian therapy and the concept of unconditional positive regard, where the role of the therapist is to not to tell the patient what to do but to be supportive, and acting empathetic towards the client (Friedman, 2009, p. 302). When Mulan is found out as a female, she is disgraced, despite her prowess in turning the tide of the battle against the Huns. Mushu reminds her that her accomplished intention was to help her father and tries to cheer her up by polishing her helmet for her. His conversation with her encouraged her out of her depression, which meant that as she headed home she noticed an overlooked group of Huns heading to attack the Imperial City (//Mulan//, 1998).

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">Abraham Maslow is another prominent humanistic psychologist. His theory of a Hierarchy of Needs emphasizes a needs-based system where self-actualization, where one comes into a realization of one’s own identity and worth, is in following with Mushu’s behavior (Friedman, 2009, p. 307). At the beginning of the movie, Mushu presumably has both the bottom tier physiological and safety needs but is upset over his demotion from guardian spirit to gong-ringer. He wants his old job back to fulfill his sense of belonging among all the other guardian spirits. Also, he acts condescendingly to the faithful Cri-Kee, who serves as a source of inspiration for Mushu’s crazy ideas and always does his best to carry out Mushu’s bidding; in truth, Mushu sees Cri-Kee as a friend in partial fulfillment of the tier of belonging (//Mulan//, 1985). When Mushu put Mulan’s happiness before his own, going so far as to marry her and Shang, he thought he was sacrificing his position as her guardian spirit, which through his selflessness demonstrated a move towards self-actualization (//Mulan II//, 2005). Though Mushu arguably never reaches self-actualization by the end of the movies, it is clear that as an individual he makes leaps and bounds towards realizing his full potential.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">Mushu at first may come off as an egotistical character, who isn’t deserving of any sympathy, in analyzing his personality with the two previously mentioned approaches, one gains a better, more empathetic understanding of him. In a world where he is alone, no family is mentioned and he is alienated and mocked amongst the other guardian and ancestral spirits, he is simply striving to better himself and to cope with his feelings of inadequacy. The Neo-Analytical / Ego approach delved into Mushu’s self-perception and ways which he may have used to cope with experiencing a loss of control, which is certainly a feeling to which everyone can relate.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17pt; line-height: 200%;">DISCUSSION **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">Mushu may at times make unwise choices and think too highly of himself, but one must look at his intentions to truly make an accurate judge of his character. The humanistic approach and Mushu’s use of Rogerian therapy towards Mulan even in a time of great worry for his own well-being demonstrates his compassion and big-heartedness. His journey with Mulan can be summarized in a drive to satisfy his needs in pursuit of self-actualization.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">The use of these personality approaches beg the conclusion that there are a number of facets of any individual’s personality—rather, personality is ever changing and cannot be summed up in one instance. Mushu can teach us all that we should not be so quick to judge, and that even in the most shallow there is depth which requires an open mind to fully understand.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17pt; line-height: 200%;">REFERENCES ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 15.9pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Blohm, J. (Producer), & Rooney, D. (Director). (2005). Mulan II. United States: Walt Disney Pictures.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 15.9pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Coats, P. (Producer), & Bancroft, T. (Director). (1998). Mulan. United States: Walt Disney Pictures. <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W. (2009). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.