I just finished watching (for the umpteenth time) the Disney movie Mulan. The movie is packed with lessons on honor, respect, and courage. Mulan is a great example of empowering women. But what inspired me the most about the movie is Mulan’s confidence to face almost every adversity in her life.

For starters, in China’s superstitious milieu, Mulan was considered an unfortunate daughter who always got into trouble. They paired her up with another boy, but the wedding was stopped due to Mulan’s clumsiness. After this, she was scolded enough almost to the point of being disgraced by her family.

At first, Mulan can hear echoes of a lack of confidence due to her inability to bring the family honor. He felt that he has no place in his family and that he will never be able to bring the honor of his family.

Now Imperial China has an ongoing war with the Huns and as a result the Emperor ordered each family to send their most capable male relative. Unfortunately, Mulan’s family has no other male member other than her father, as Mulan is an only child.

Fearing that her father would die in battle because he was already old and becoming ill, Mulan decided to go herself with a hidden agenda of bringing her family’s honor.

Although she is just a child and she realized that China is a very fatherly community, she still braced herself for that one chance and faced her fears.

At this point, he was confident enough to die in battle or come back from victory. In any case, she can return the honor to her family.

His confidence can also be seen during the time when he saved the army from the attacking Huns by firing cannons against a snowy cliff.

Although, it was discovered that she was a woman and was removed from the army, she still continued to save China by going to the palace and saving the Emperor. She managed to do it and people, including the Emperor himself, bowed to her.

She never gave up and because of this, she became a kind of savior for China from the terrorist Shan Yu from the Huns. In the paternal community of China, it is not a common feat for the Emperor to honor a woman.

With her courage and confidence, she finally regained the honor she had hoped for. As a beautiful Chinese saying goes,

The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.