I love retold fairy tales. They’re like my literary equivalent of comfort food. Of course, the story of Hua Mulan is not a fairy tale (there are no fairies or other supernatural elements) but a folk tale. Still for the purposes of this discussion we’ll lump folk tales along with fairy tales, legends and myths.

Every girl, not just those of Chinese heritage, should love Hua Mulan. She’s the ultimate girl power figure, saving not only her family but the whole country, by being brave, skilled and simply better than any boy. To share the story with my anglophone kids, I need an English source (I get by with Mandarin movies, but alas I read Chinese slowly and painfully with a dictionary in my hand).