Or rather, this might resolve the irony if she accepted the importance and validity of her actions. But instead, Mulan declines the emperor’s offer for her to live in the palace and consult with him in making significant military decisions; she opts to return to her domestic lifestyle because she’s “been away from home long enough.”

军书十二卷
卷卷有爷名阿爷无大儿
木兰无长兄
愿为市鞍马
从此替爷征

someone missed the bit where the ENTIRE REASON mulan goes off the war is not in some misguided attempt to prove her worth (she already knows her worth; she is worthy) or seek adventure. it was in place of her ailing father and her adolescent brother. how does this indicate that she does not accept the validity or the importance of her actions?

the disney film is also ultimately misguided in that it paints hua mulan as the sole saviour of china. this is not a chinese value this is not something we laud above all, this peerless individualism. most chinese adaptations of mulan are careful to stress that it was a group effort, not only on the part of mulan and the other generals, but also on the part of the civilians.

将军百战死
壮士十年归
归来见天子
天子坐明堂
勋十二转
赏赐百千强
可汗问所欲
木兰不用尚书郎
愿驰千里足
送儿还故乡

you also clearly don’t understand the importance chinese people place on the concept of home, and where home is. home is always a part of you, even if you are away from it. home is not necessarily where you are born, but it’s where your roots run the deepest, where your family or clan has had the longest history. every year we try our hardest to return home in time for holidays like chongyang, chunjie, zhongqiu. returning home is a glory in and of itself. it’s an honour. mulan has already done her (confucian all you fucking ignoramuses are forgetting this is a heavily confucian story) duty in her loyalty and defense of her country, and she is returning to her parents, because she n e v e r had any aspirations to become an advisor at the king’s court. her motivation for going to war to begin with was protecting her home, what is so low and defeating about her returning to the home she spent 12 years defending?

but no you watched disney’s mulan that makes you not only an expert on the legend of hua mulan (even more than a billion chinese people!) but on chinese culture as well