花木兰 Article: What Mulan's names mean.

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posted by fiina

I thought this might interest some people and I had actually quite fun. I found most my information from link (great webside 由 the way) and some I checked myself. I put meanings really simply here so if 你 want to read 更多 detais watch link above. Please correct me if any name is wrong 或者 there's 更多 meanings in it.
All pictures are made 由 me, partly because I felt I otherwise get away with this too easy (just copying another site) and partly because I have this strange obsession to draw.

Fa Mulan
Fa is Mulan's surname, Chinese put it before first name. 花木兰 is often 给 surname name, Hua, which means 花 and Cantonese spells it Fa. 花木兰 itself means "magnolia".

Li
Li is both Shang and his father's surname and Mulan's mother's name. It means "plum", but as a first name it means "beautiful".

Li Shang
Li is explained above, Shang means "to soar".

Fa Zhou
Surname is same as Mulan's. Zhou means "a wooden bow".

Mushu
(Okay this is rude copy-paste, I couldn't explain it simple)"Mu shu pork", "mu shu beef", "mu shu chicken", and "mu shu shrimp" are what 你 call meat cooked with various vegetables and served in rolled-up thin crepes with 李子, 梅花 sauce. It's a Mandarin Chinese dish. The characters in picture (mu shu lung) translate to "Mu shu dragon."

Grandmother
Her name never actually mentioned but I have seen some people name her Nai Nai, in deleted scenes Fa Li calls her that and I also believed it was her name but Nai Nai means simply grandmother. Actually it's father's mother so she is Zhou's mother.

Shan Yu
It's means "leader of huns"

"No, as a name it's very uh.. manly.. strong name."

Fa Ping
花木兰 got name Ping from one artist who worked in film, Sai Ping Lok. Mulan's surname just makes it really funny for chinese, Fa Ping means "flower pot".

Yao
Yao can mean "high", "eminent", 或者 "lofty".

Ling
Means "peace; repose; serenity; tranquility."

Chien po
Chien means "gold," 或者 "metal," 或者 "wealth". Po can mean "treasure" 或者 "precious; valuable" 或者 "respectable; honorable."

I couldn't find his calligraphy character

Khan
(again complicated)In Chinese, the word "khan" usually refers to a foreign (i.e. non-Chinese) emperor, king, 或者 leader. However, in the English translation of the poem "Mulan," "Khan" is used as another name for the Chinese emperor. Why? The 作者 of the original poem lived in northern China in an area that was influenced 由 the nomadic cultures--and "khan" was one of the words adopted. Anyway, 迪士尼 decided not to call either the leader of the Huns 或者 the Emperor "Khan." That name was 给 to Mulan's horse.

"candy merchant may be your father but I'm the Emperor's council."

Chi Fu
Literally "to bully", very suitable for him.

Cri Kee
It means "cricket".

Thanks for reading!

hassanhosny241, ARIEL-RAPUNZEL and 3 others like this

Flutey_Girl96 Interesting, and nice pictures :)

fiina Thank you!

MaidofOrleans Beautiful pictures and very interesting! I'd love to see more of your artwork in your future articles :)

fiina Thank you very much :) I'll keep that on mind though I don't have any article ideas right now. Drawing pictures is not problem at all(I love it), my major problem is that I'm not that keen to write an article in english. But we'll see, if I get inspiration. I have a blog where I put my drawings but it's just a hobby -like thing.

rhythmicmagic Wow, I can't draw to save my life, you're very talented! Great and informative article. This was really interesting and I love the knowledge and insight it gives to the movie! I'm always happy to know more about Mulan :)

fiina Thanks though I think anyone can draw if they really want, it doesn't need talent so much. I think you should watch that link from beginning, that website has tons of information about Mulan. Like a list of things that could have been in the movie(things that weren't on DVDs)

islandprincess Thanks!

queenofwaves I'd add that "Li" also means beautiful- Shang's surname is "plum", but Mulan's mother's first name, "Li", means beautiful.

fiina @queenofwaves, thank you. I'll correct that one.

ARIEL-RAPUNZEL Interesting article thanks for sharing and great pictures.

fiina Thank you and you're welcome.

EppofangirlXD And more commonly, 'Yao' means 'want' or 'bite', which is kind of appropriate. So be careful, okay, when you speak Chinese and whether you mean to say, 'I want Mulan's strength,' or, 'I bite Mulan's strength.'

fiina Oh really? Thanks for letting me know, although my article looks to be pretty messy after fanpop updated atricles so I better not try to fix it.. Aren't you Starleigh btw? Guess who :D

EppofangirlXD Yeah, this is the first time I've seen it mean 'high', 'eminent', 'lofty', etc (well, I read this article some time ago, just didn't feel like commenting then). I am more familiar with the words want or bite because they are very common words, obviously. For example, in pin yin, my mother would go, "Gei wo ni de yi fu - wo yao xi." (Give me your shirt - I want to wash.) Or more commonly, "Ni yao si ma?" (You want to die, is it?) For bite...eh. Can't think of anything now. Bite is third tone and want is fourth tone. Well gee! I figured you already knew who I was, the same way I know very well who you are. Not that I stalk you or anything. Because I so totally don't do that. Or anything. <_< >_> Wo yao ni!