Multiple Texts > Culture of China
16 May 2010
By Admin

A Mulan Tale with Difference (1)
越剧: 孟丽君
Story of A Chinese Cross Dresser

This time it is not a girl of the northern native but a lass of southern origin. Her name is Lijun (丽君) and her surname is Meng (孟), so she is addressed as Miss Meng Lijun.

Unlike Hua Mulan (花木兰) whose daddy was a disabled man hardly qualified to be a soldier, Meng Lijun’s father was a general. But while the daughter of the disabled man was a kungfu master, the girl of the grand general was a scholar who even failed to learn how to ride a horse properly.

One day the general ran into bad luck and lost a crucial battle. Instead of quelling a riot by tribe separatists on the south-western tip of the kingdom, he disgracefully fell from his horse and captured by the militant troublemakers, along with his entire troops. The covert collaborators of the rebellions in the court spent no time to spread rumours that the general got paid by the separatists to lose the fight. A royal decreed was thus issued to arrest the general’s family members.

So our heroine ran away from home, like Mulan did. While Mulan left with a pet bird (according to Americans), Lijun left with her girl servant (according to Chinese), and sent a self-portrait to her fiancée whom she was yet to meet in person (according to traditional Chinese custom which, of course, isn’t a too good custom, but that is another story).

Once left home, Lijun took a route different than that of Mulan to rise in rank. She didn’t excel herself in the battlefield, but distinguished herself in the imperial examination chambers. In fact, she did so well, that she was shortlisted as top three PhD candidates to be interviewed by the emperor, and the emperor was so impressed with her maiden speech in the court outlining her broad political, social, economic, cultural and military strategies that he awarded her the title of Mr Scholar of the Year (状元公), the highest academic prize in ancient China that only awarded once in every four years, and assigned her to ministerial post.

Lijun was a very good public parent (父母官) who worked hard and achieved a lot while took no bribes and found herself no mistresses; soon she was recommended by the aging prime minister to take over his office.

Lijun proved herself being an outstanding prime minister. During the three years of her administration, the productivity of the kingdom was up, the cost of living was down, the farmland was protected, the agriculture (all organic) was supported, the new cities were built with Chinese characteristics and in accordance with fengshui principles, the craft enterprises in textile, paper, furniture, porcelain, bronze article and bamboo wear (all designed by Chinese) were encouraged, trading and banking sectors were under close scrutiny of the governmental surveillance bodies, Tartars' demand to purchase their stringed shells with China's gold, silver and precious stones was rejected, the gap between the rich and the poor was narrowed, the ethic lessons were taught at private teaching houses (私塾) and government-run free schools (公学), the right individuals who appreciate the core values of the Chinese civilisation were promoted to take in charge of culture, arts and publication affairs, the corrupted officials were disciplined, the collaborators were disposed, the ethnic discrimination against the main body of the Chinese, the Han people, were strictly prohibited, and the advocators pushing for imposing less-child policy on the Han Chinese only were prosecuted for attempting to execute genocide of Chinese nation. And most importantly, she appointed a new general, her fiancée; the new general rescued the old general, her daddy, and successfully wiped out the separatists movements which include Free Teabag, East Turkeysburge, Independent Tablewear and New Manchoosewok.

The young general returned to report the emperor triumphantly, and a delighted emperor offered to be a matchmaker under the earnest request of a top policy advancer, who was the representative of the special interest group – the privileged and get-rich-quick family of empress – and a Tartar's secret agent.

The young general rejected the proposal and declared he would only marry Meng Lijun. After a hard and lengthy negotiation, a compromise was reached: the general would have to marry the adviser’s daughter if he could not locate Meng Jijun in 100 days.

As he began to work side by side with the PM, the young general started to suspect his boss was in fact his fiancée, and therefore kept dropping hints urging her to reveal her true nature. But Lijun kept playing innocence. She probably never heard the story of Joan of Arc, but she certainly knew she would be severely punished for cross dressing. And she understood she had to wait for a right moment.

100 days quickly passed. As the young general was ordered by the emperor to fulfil his promise and marry the adviser’s daughter, he was forced to announce that Lijun was among the high officials in the court and he presented her self-portrait to support his claim.

It didn’t take long for everyone to discover the great similarities between the prime minister and the portrait.

How excited the people in the art collection world should have felt had they heard the story of Meng Lijun! Apparently, China is not only home to the freehand and multi-perspective painting styles that contributed greatly to the post-modern expression movement in the West, but a cradle for photorealistic genre long before camera was invented. Pity this portrait has yet to be located.

Back to the court, some angry officials promptly tabled a bill demanding to put anyone who was found to have cross-dressed to death. But the emperor was determined to save his PM, so ruled that he fround everybody in presence was properly dressed.

Later that day, Lijun was recalled to the palace by the emperor’s messenger. When she arrived, she was showed the gate to the inner royal garden …

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