Mulan

So I spent my night watching cartoon movies, so what?

I'm a big kid and I admit it!

hahahahahaha!

Disney does not produce enough cartoons to quench my satisfaction for colour motioned pictures with adult jokes!

So, after like a million years, I've decided to watch Mulan again.

I remembered when I was a little girl, 12 I think, my daddy would bring me for movies, KFCs, Starbucking and such.

That's cos he loves me the most, and I was the only kid around that had time to spend with him!

Anyways, my dad used to bring me for these cartoon movies, it was so fun, just me and him, 2 cokes, popcorn.

He would teach me to pull the straw up and down the cover of the drink, to make the squeeky noise just to piss everyone off.

He's such an example to follow!

Mulan is a chinese character in ancient history, of a young girl who goes to war, impersonating a man, in place of her old aged father.

This is what I call love.

This movie pretty much reflects many things about us in life.

We're this young girl.



We're plain, we're simple, we love cheating because we know we aren't smart, we are lazy, we love lazing about in bed, and getting our dogs (people) to do our jobs for us (feeding chickens etc etc)

Along comes family pride and honour to ruin our lives.

As it is, Family pride and honour is still very much alive in this country.
We have to make ourselves presentable, to look the best, and marry the cream of the crop
(aka rich gold mine bastard)
to please our parents and to make them proud.

We lose weight (something that I have yet to succeed), we dress up, we put on 4 inches thick of make up and heels, we pretend to act dainty, we eat slowly, we talk gently.

But we all know that when no one is looking or when we're alone in our rooms,
we love to walk around with nothing but our panties on, dig our noses, flick it, scratch our bum,
then our crotch, burp, fart, sit with legs wide open, yawn as widely as possible,

that is, do everything that boys do.

We are all the same.

The reason why we don't do it in front of boys is because of years of training to mould us into the model women that the society approves of.

So that we would become marriage material.

So, Mulan dresses up, goes to the match maker, is given a cricket for good luck,

and gets her family dishonoured for not being approved of being the perfect wife.



She then loses all faith in life, and decides that the person she is trying to be is not the person who she is.

Then Christina Aguilera's song comes on screen and makes us tear as deep down,
we all know that what we show to the world,
is actually not who we are.



So she wipes off her make up in front of the ancestral plate,
feels sorry for herself,
yada yada yada.

Our make up, the front we put up when we greet the whole world,
may not be the person whom we really are.
We act the way society wants us to act, so that we get the approval of everyone.

Admit it, we aim to please.

Ok, so China gets attacked by the Huns

(wait, aren't the current Chinese people labelled as Huns in the olden days?)

or are they Genghis Khans?

That's why the Emperor built the Wall of China to keep them out, kan?

Doesn't matter, we all know theres always a bad guy in everyone's live.

Ok, so her dad gets called into the Army to fight the bad guys.

She does not allow,
Her dad scolds her,
says she's dishonoured the family for stopping him and embarrassing him in public,
makes her feel like shit,
she cries.

You get the story.

Then she decides to be the hero and cut her hair to become a boy and go to war in place of her dad.



In a way, this is an act of filial piety.
She loves her dad, and knows that her dad is too old for this shit.
So she go act hero lah.

But Mulan does not go to war alone.
(well duh, for obvious reasons)



She has the lucky cricket, her steady steed and the annoying ancestral dragon - mushu.

Those 3 are like our friends.

We have Mushu.



Ever so annoying,
so bossy,
VERY VERY sacarstic,
Sometimes have hidden agendas for their own benefits but hide them really well.

But in the end, they still care a whole deal for you.

Sometimes they create trouble for you,


but other times they feed you.
(mushu always cracks me up)

Then we have the lucky cricket



The cricket is always there by your side,
they arent lucky, but they tell you they are,
so that you have a moral boost and confidence.

Just like alot of our friends,
they arent happy little bunnies within, but still they act happy so that YOU become happy.

Thats the whole theorum of cricket friends.

Gives you moral boosts.

Then we have the steady steed.


Always there by your side,
at your beck and call,
you can always rely on them to be there for you.

Sometimes they have pride and ego,
at times they don't like your other friends.

But they still try and get along for your well being.



You may fumble through life, do all the wrong things,
make your employees doubt your capabilities,

But you know for sure, that your trustee friends will ALWAYS be by your side watching out for you.

So she saves the day (China)
(the story is too long for me to actually go into)

and the Emperor tells the General
(whom she has a huge high school crush on)
(but General is mad at her for lying about being a man)
(there is a death penalty but he doesnt kill her)
(because he is confused about his feelings - for a man? woman?)
(is the General gay if he didnt know that she was a woman?)

NEVERMIND.

The Emperor told him,

"The flower that blooms in adversity, is the rarest"

That is to say, the flowers that blooms in the harshest of conditions, will be the rarest one of all.

Unfortunate circumstances will bring out who you really are within.

If you're a good one, the whole world will know, no matter how you look like.

But if you're just rotten within,
well,

good luck man.

Not forgetting what her father told her after she has dishonoured the family during the match making



He said,
"look, the only flower that has not bloomed yet.
But when it does,
it will be the most beautiful flower of all"
(pointing at the last Cherry Blossom)

So my dear readers, be you male or female,
do not worry that you have not started advancing in life when the rest of your peers have.

Because one day, you will too :)

Remember,

No matter how shitty life gets,

You'll always have your trustee friends with you.

If you seriously, honestly, don't have any friends,

then, I'm really sorry.

You mus be one sad, little person.

X

Love your parents

The above reads as,

"while parents are alive,
one must not travel afar.
If one must, one's whereabouts
should always be made known"

The word

孝

or

Filial Piety

is one of the virtues to be cultivated:
a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors.

Nowadays, it also includes the elders.

This good virtue has been introduced by

Confucius

or

孔夫子

The Confucius we're talking about today is the one who wrote about the

TWENTY-FOUR FILIAL EXEMPLARS
二十四孝

and not this Confucius

though he's more hilarious than the first one.

Right. Why I have been inspired to write about this is because of what I saw yesterday.
Here's the gist of it.

Father dies 15 years ago.
Mum brings up kid.
Kid becomes a doctor.
Mum is now 71, scrawny, shrunked and weak.
Kid walks first, leaves old mum hobbling behind, alone.
Kid walks so quick that mum does not even know where kid has gone.
Kid does not wait for mum.

Does this sound familiar?

Most likely, my dear readers, you have encountered circumstances like these.

It brought a tear to my eye when I saw this.

My heart broke to see this old woman hobbling on her own while her obstinate mule of a son shot off forward without waiting for his mum. Knowing Malaysia, we have uneven bumpy roads
(oh thank you Malaysia!)
What if your mum walked on these roads, tripped and fell?
How would you feel if she fell and you weren't even there to hold her or help her up?

So what if you are a damn doctor?
No one gives a load of shit about how highly qualified you are.

This has enraged me.
I am disgusted at how the current young generation is treating their parents.
Your mother gave her life to give birth to you. She could have died at labour trying to squeeze your sorry ass out of her terribly dilated and enlarged vagina. But yet, because of the overpowering maternal love, she did it anyway.
Your parents gave you all they could to bring you up.
To give you the best education, the best life.
To turn you into a doctor.
You are what your parents have greatly sacrificed.
You are obliged to at least show some concern for them

Kudos to single parents. I really salute you. You have the biggest sacrifice of all on this earth.
Bringing a monstrosity up, alone.

Well done.

We as children, should never ever neglect our parents.
When I was growing up, my mother would drive past the St. Nicholas Home for the Old and Aged, and she would tell me,

"Ann, one day you'll send me here"

I said no of course, and we both started tearing.
I am sure all of you have seen on tv of parents abandoned in old folks home, parents left on streets to beg, parents dying alone in the house unknown to everyone till their bodies have decomposed several days later.

Have you felt sad at the sight/thought of this?

Yes? Good.

No? You deserve to burn in hell.

Your parents worked their tired ass off to buy you school shoes, pencils, colour pencils, everything you could ever want when you were growing up. They had a choice to live a better live than suffering with you. But they still chose to have you anyway.

And now, you have forsaken them.

The held you to walk at your weakest age when you were growing up.

Now you have left them walking alone at their weakest, their most vulnerable.

If you have left your parents alone in homes, and you yourself are living a comfortable life,
then I can outrightly say that you're an animal.

If you're rich, hire a personal maid. Don't throw them in homes and expect the people to take care of them.

Petronas has done the best thing they could, showing commercials at festive seasons to remind all of us that the most important thing on this earth is your parents.

You owe them your life.

You can not forsake them at their eleventh hour. When they no longer have means to provide for you. When they are no longer as strong or as lively as they were.

They spent half of their lives to bring you where you are.
Yes, sometimes parents make mistakes along their lives.

But to err is human. I am uncomfortable around Gods.
No one is perfect.
Part of live is forgiving mistakes and letting go.

I recall this Petronas ad on Chinese New Year several years ago.
This old elderly woman slogged and slave for the New year's eve Reunion Dinner,
only to wait and wait, but none of her children came back to eat with her.

Just writing this has brought a tear to my eye.

There are no words to explain how I strongly feel about this.
When I was younger, yes I admit I have considered moving away and never coming home.
But now as I have aged (albeit slightly) I have realised that our parents need us more now than ever. They are at their twilight years. They are no longer as strong as they were when we were young and weak.
And rememeber that they were there at every step of the way when we were growing up.

As I try to persuade this gently to you,

Go home, hug your parents.
They will not be there forever.
They need you.
They need your time and care.

Not your money.

I remember when I used to visit my grandpa in Penang.
He lives in this mansion alone with grandma.
He had this article hung up from a million years ago.

It wrote,
"A little charity could kill your parents of a broken heart"

What the article tried to sum up was,
your parents don't need your money. They are fine as they are.
What they need is only your time and concern.
To sit down and talk to them.
To make them feel that you still love them.

The only unconditional love on this earth is from a parent to their child.

The otherway proves otherwise.

Your parents will NEVER EVER forsake you.
Your partners will.
Even if your parents did, I am sure they had valid reasons to.

So my dear readers, after reading this blog, please take time to contemplate about it.

Please give your parents time and patience.
For when you were at your weakest,
your parents gave you all of theirs.

On a lighter note, another person who has greatly (and rightly I thnk!) used Confucius to promote the greatness of laughter is Russell Peters

He is the best! :)

X