I’ve already answered this one re:Mulan herself, but on a meta level one thing I don’t always love is the research!  

Most people who know me and read this will gasp, because they know I’m a history major and try to do justice to the historical/cultural context of the characters I play.  But researching is only fun once you have a few leads.  On my other major character blogs I also try to research the context in which they would have lived, but so far Mulan is the character who I’ve done the least research on because she is the newest. (whoops rolling up my sleeves bc this is something I’ve been wanting to address for a while)

I’m not Chinese (or rather, if I have Chinese ancestry, it’s too far back for me to be aware of it); the closest I can claim geographically is being half Filipino-Hawai’ian.  So I hope I can bring an awareness to my roleplaying that a) Hua Mulan, before she was adapted by Disney, is first and foremost a Chinese heroine, and b) I can’t make things up along the way or pretend I know things about Chinese language, culture, etc. when I really don’t.

Still, I’m working on it!  I couldn’t have found on my own half the sources I refer to without Angel’s previous research.  Some of my friends who are in on the secret of my RP life and who were born and raised Chinese offer me advice when I ask for it.  And I now follow a plethora of Chinese-language/culture blogs (like you! Thanks for sending in this ask!).