Reflections | Mulan gets much wrong, not least about the Witch and the Matchmaker, who would have been excluded from society
- In Chinese history, these figures were despised as part of ‘the three women and six hags’, a phrase still used to describe gossipmongers
- Midwives, madams and medicine women were also among those who held disreputable professions
It’s a Disney flick, I reminded myself before a screening of Mulan, it’s not meant to be historically or culturally accurate. Even discounting the flagrant errors and inventions, and ignoring how everyone in the film speaks like messages found in fortune cookies, it’s a terrible film, whose thematic progression and characters’ motivations fail to convince. Thirty minutes in, this viewer had ceased to care.
But two characters stood out for me: the Witch, played by international star Gong Li, a fellow Singaporean who has the passport to prove it; and the Matchmaker, portrayed by legendary kung fu star Cheng Pei-pei, whose filmography includes classics such as Come Drink with Me (1966) and its sequel Golden Swallow (1968).
Witches and female matchmakers were traditionally women on the fringes of polite society in China, or excluded from it altogether. You may have heard the phrase “the three women and six hags”, or san gu liu po (in Cantonese saam gu luk po), which describes gossipy women who find delicious pleasure in spreading rumours and sowing discord. However, the phrase originally referred to nine categories of females whose occupations prejudiced society against them.
The three gu, or women, were those who had taken religious vows or whose work involved religion. The Buddhist nun (nigu) was a female monastic who renounced most aspects of secular life, including marriage and family – essential features of Chinese society.
Life inside the Forbidden City: how women were selected for service
The Taoist priestess (daogu) had more leeway in her asceticism. She could remain celibate and live in a Taoist temple, or live a normal life and, literally, put on her religious hat whenever the occasion arose. When people wanted their fortune told or their dead relations contacted, they went to female shaman (guagu), who were also mediums that could supposedly channel the spirits of supernatural entities or dead people.