Inside the Round Tulou Houses You Saw in ‘Mulan’
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- If you saw the trailer for Disney’s upcoming “Mulan” movie, you might have noticed the mysterious round fortresses that Mulan calls home. The only problem is the actual Mulan probably didn’t live in one. We went to these houses, known as tulou in Chinese, met the people who live there, and learned about their history.
0:00 Is this Mulan’s home?
0:35 Where tulou are found
0:54 Meet Grandpa Jiang
2:33 How they’re built
3:20 Inside a tulou
4:17 Grandpa shows us around
5:22 Disney’s cultural appropriation?
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Producer: Jessica Novia
Narrator: Victoria Ho
Videographer: Zhang Yiqian
Editor: Nicholas Ko
Animators: Ray Ngan and Victor Pena
Mastered: Joel Roche
Music: Audio Network
#disney #mulan #tulou
also, tulou's are in the SOUTHEASTERN part of China while the story of Mulan takes place in the North...so this is one of the many cultural misinterpretations and mistakes the movie made...
it's not a mistake, its to make a visually striking movie. Disney isn't in the business of documentaries, it's business is fantasy. And Mulan is a fantasy.
@@jrmint2 didn't you watch the video? it tells the origin of mulan
@@jrmint2 It wasn't a mistake, correct. It was a deliberate misrepresentation. So they get called out for the misrepresentation. 5:38 is for you and your like-minded folks btw.
Nobody cares.
@@jrmint2 Mulan is not a fantasy but rather a fictional poem on its own. However this poem was written in the Song Dynasty and Hakka tulous were only built 2000 years after the Song dynasty ended.
Edit: You should not justify Disney's 'fantasy business' by compromising a historically written poem that has existed for thousands of years. I do not see Disney altering the main trunk of Moses' story in the Prince of Egypt as well, so your comment does not make any justification.
Edit: Thanks bobby for the correction. It’s 700 years, not 2000 years.
I was also very confused with scenes in the Mulan trailer. A Ming dynasty housing with Tang dynasty castle and heroine from when...? Disney said they took out Mushu to portray the original Mulan more accurately. And here we are with every cultural element's time line jumbled up. Shouldn't have even tried to be non-fictional if they were going to add a bird witch. Should have just stuck to the animation recreating. At least then you have some excuse.
I'm pretty sure they chose that because it works perfectly with The Volume, their new studio
Right and by the way of dress they threw in some of the Qing dynasty too in the animated film. I was like when was this supposed to be really?
if you know it then how can you be confused about a movie?. I never expected it to be ahistorical correct movie like so many movies are not. war movies or Chinese history movies etc its all just to dry to be good.....
@@gscr09 wait how?
I'm proud to say that my father hailed from Fujian province. Tulous are so cool.
Hakka or hokkian?
@@ivanhendr Hokkien
I am Hakka, My father and mother from Fujian. Family name is 廖。土楼家姓廖。
@@vitriew Your surname is Liao, mine is Chen. We still have our ancestral home just at the outskirts of Xiamen. I have memories of my father sending money to his brothers there so that they could help build the roads in their village. That was in the 60s through the 70s.
My mum is from fujian as well
Hollywood has never concerned itself with historical accuracy.
Ikr? Even their MSM is fabricating news to create rumors.
It was made for entertainment, not history lesson. 😉
And the movie never stated it as a true story. No need to make a big fuss out of it.
@@MaDcOw1986 lol try to make an inaccurate story about the west, or a story that doesn't suit them. You will be condemned.
@@soysauce4223 the Tudors, princess and the frog, Moana, the witches, pretty much every historical movie... Inaccurate movies have always existed, it's only since 2020ish that people have selectively started complaining... It's a bit annoying tbh.
@@camille8010 annoying? Did you know where you came from? Do you know what is your culture? Or where is your origin? Or where you came from?
FUN FACT: When these structures were first photographed by US reconnaissance aircrafts. they were thought to be missle launch silos.
Can you cite a source?
@@kevinbarista269 I saw this on Wiki and here was a cited source next to it. If you google Fujian TuLou missle silo, your will see many articles mentioning it.
😂😂😂
True, I too saw it on earth files in discovery science
That's very american
I love the concept of the structure. It's like a Roman villa, but for multiple families or generations. Harmonious and self sustaining. So much to learn from those who we came from.
Safe to say that you'd never feel lonely living in a tulou. If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd love to visit one
I need to write a historical Robin Hood story set in modern day Spain.
yet Robin hood was fiction.
@@xw6968 Don't ruin this for me!!
His son sent him bread buns in the morning. He also brought lunch for him. He's a really good son.
this is what happens when Americans from Disney pander to China to sell more movie tickets but forget to hire someone who actually knows Chinese culture.
aside from that cultural blunder Mulan helped bring the tulou into the spotlight and now because of this video people know more about the diversity of Chinese history and culture. Hakka grandpa deserves a movie.
They didn't make that movie for the Chinese market.
Even Chinese movies make mistake on their own history. Do you think not the same for westerners on their own historical movies ?
there are many ChInese actors in the movie, i guess they just don't give a damn about their opinion.
Please don't blame all of us for disney. One of the things we americans dislike most about disney is their total disrespect and disregard for the original source materials and how they throw anything anywhere with no thought for accuracy.
They rip apart the snow witch so much it is no longer the same story too. Frozen isn't what it used to be.
This reminds me of "Big Fish and Begonia" movie. This is where the characters live. It is beautiful movie based on Chinese mythological creatures. I thought the house is just something they create for movie purposes but wow it is real and part of Chinese culture. And now i know the house is called "Tulou".
Yes! I knew it was a real architectural style but didn't know anything specific about it. This was cool.
Love = Sacrifice. Beautiful yet a sorrow movie.
Yeah even I saw that movie
I just wanna said that. Glad I found your comment.
I am from fujian province and the grandpa’s Chinese is so comforting to me.
I assume it was Fukienese. My chinese is pathetic, but I do know it was not Madarin or Cantonese. lol
@@ycplum7062 ???? It’s Chinese 👌
@@ycplum7062 lol no it is Mandarin that he was speaking, but his accent is a bit different, most likely due to Hakka influence.
In addition, Fujianese does NOT include Hakka/Fuzhounese. Fujianese is spoken in Xiamen/Quanzhou/Zhengzhou, basically southern Fujian.
@@carltan2000
Practically every province, even village can have a significant accent. LOL
@@ycplum7062 Wouldn't be surprised. The grandpa spoke Mandarin though, not other dialects 🙂
I wouldn't cry if some studio made a Robin Hood movie set in current day Spain. I just wouldn't watch it just like I didn't watch Mulan. Anyways, those circular houses are awesome.
Agreed. Not everything has to be historically accurate. Its fantasy
@@jackwhitetron its different cause Disney said it was. So they just lied. They should have just kept the original
@@tayanahemphill7110 i missed the part where Disney said live action mulan is historically accurate. If they said it was supposed to be 100% historically accurate then Disney is wrong. I doubt they said that though. They probably said "based" on historical facts
This is #Hakka ethnic group (Han Chinese) housing style!! Hakka Pride!! 💛😍
I love it!
Yayyyyy!
It’s a sub ethnic group of han Chinese. Han chinese is really diverse. This is a smaller group in the southern province.
Proud to be born with Hakka spirit!
Hakka is not an ethnic group. It falls under the big umbrella of Han ethnic group.
Hakka (guest people/migrants) are not minority group, they are Han Chinese. I am Hakka and our ancestors migrated from Henan to Guangdong long time ago.
I thought about this when I watched. Hakka is not a minority group. I am Hakka too and my ancestors migrated to Meixian :)
A minority is a relative term in Chinese when there is 1.3 Billion Pep, 100 Million would be a Minority!
@@bs8356 no it's about the culture and stuffs, they speak Chinese and write Chinese, while real ethnic groups like Tibetans have their own languages and scripts.
@@bs8356 Hakka, GuangFu people, Sua Tow, Hainanese, Sichuan-nese etc. you name it...
They are all Han Chinese but speaking different dialects, it just doesn’t make sense to call any of them minority, it’s like calling Dragon Lee or Ragdoll a minority among cats
@@junweihe8229 hakka people do have their own language and culture. Most only learned to speak mandarin in the last century.
One amazing facts about Round Toulou House is that during 1980's when CIA saw Satellite image of these houses. They think that It's China secret nuclear facility. And they sent their covert operatives to Fujian for the same.
The covert end up marrying the local tulou women.
I’m Hakka and it’s so cool to see our history done right.
Hakka suck
Got to know this at least two decades ago when Singapore MediaCorp made a documentary to show the hometowns of the different dialect groups in Singapore.
Steve Jobs saw one of these and decided Apple headquarter needs to look like this.
Really?
@@jayphilippewu3371 kidding
lol. Classic!
@@catchlessc8941 steve jobs was a buddist and entrenched in easter philosopy so its not beyond the realm of possibility he was influenced by Hakka.
@@bevoburn hakka noodles
This round house architecture is from the Hakka ethnic. Mulan is from the ethnic closer to inner Mongolia. Very different.
I always wonder about electricity, plumbing 🪠 water supply, toilets and waste disposal in these ancient structures
From a defensive perspective, I would assume there was a well within the tulou. I would think the ground water was not that deep based on the immediate area.
I did notice drainage ditches adjacent tot he alley way/street.
I suspect that there was a communal latrines that drains out of the tulou. If I were to design it, I would put it down slope toward the river or stream. That way, the waste does not contaminate pollute the well water.
There would be no electricity. Any electricity would be modern retrofit.
I stayed in one on holiday, theres was electricity and running water at ours and every one we visited! Not sure how they pulled it off, our rooms were on the third floor too
@@xb8268
It caneeasily be done. The trick would be to do so and hide the infrastructure (e.g. wires, pipes, holes, etc) to keep the authentic feel.
@@ycplum7062 Could well be that Feng Shui experts were originally water supply / drainage experts also. Today we are left with the 'magic' elements only...
@@tedf1471
I think they would be the equivalent would be lanscape and interior designers. A lot of the elements are logical. It can promote health by not sleeping with ones head near an open window, promotes good interior air flow, etc. It also is asthetically pleasing by enhance sunlght into house and having a view (high ground with view of water).
Like you, I just don't agree with why the elements work. lol
This is where my family is from. Its wonderful, and knew this for sooo long
Hakka here. Very funny hearing this video claim that we're an ethnic minority! I mean you do realise that us Hakkas are Hans?
I thought that was weird haha. Also.I heard that Milan did come from a Tulou, from one of the many legends she hails from. Do you confirm this?
@@alleemaria97 Nope. Mulan isn't Hakka, she's a northerner. Fujian, where the Tulou is, is very far away from the Huns! and the Tulou was also invented a couple hundred years AFTER the ballad was written. So there's no way that's true.
Was the part about you all being persecuted true?
This video was very eye opening, as I love history & learning about different cultures.
I want to learn more about the Hakka culture now as I hadn’t heard of them previously.
@@nwsupernova Yes kinda. There used to be discrimination towards Hakka people. Lots of persecution and discrimination everywhere. But Hakka people now hold important posts in the govt. Unfortunately the indigenous Hakka people in some areas like Hong Kong are still discriminated against and genocided by the majority Cantonese who are the descendants of newer immigrants from Guangzhou who came during British occupation. The British got rid of the local language schools and installed only Cantonese (Specifically Guangzhou dialect) schools. Even to this day afaik the Hakkas, together with the Tankas, Hoklos and Punti are continuously losing their native Hong Kong culture to the Cantonese who now claim themselves to be "the true Hong Kongers". Hakka areas for example, are less developed and Hakka HKers tend to be poorer than the newcomer Cantonese. But aside from that, afaik the issue that Hakka people face now are more in the economical side. Hakkas often live in mountainous/secluded areas to shield themselves from attacks from other ethnicities. So a lot of Hakka areas tend to be poorer. There's still a lot of development that needs to be done in Hakka areas to really lift up the community.
@@anastasiaye4064 thank you so much for shedding light on what’s going on with the different cultures there. I haven’t found much detailed information on this subject like you explained.
I appreciate you taking the time to educate us on this
This scene has always been real funny to me cause my birth name is Mulan and my mom is from fuzhou. 😂
been here before .. loved it and the sheer complexities of the structures when being inside. really an amazing experience
If anything, the Mulan live-action movie exposed me to new places to travel to, when the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Seeing this, from a pov of a Filipino, actually even promoted to me just how Mulan, from which our dearest Lea Salonga played a vital role, is even more a valuable and delicate story to tell. I don't know about you, but I also think that Disney should've made it "The Ballad of Mulan" rather than just "Mulan".
The Tulou home complex is really intriguing and beautiful looking. Interesting history.
US have no problem butchering their own history either.
Ha, you are correct. Face palm 😔
Yeah. They call us "Outsiders" when they went from the European countries and massacred the Red Indians!
@@ritzx5470 Hypocrisy
Omg so interesting!! Never heard about the tulous
I love this video. It connects pop culture (Disney movie) with ancient Chinese history. Mulan may have never lived in a Tulou, but this helps me make connections when reading my text books. THANKS!!
There is one tulou in America. It called Pentagon. 😂🤣😂🤣
There's Apple Park, make it two.
Those hypocrites copied Tulous.
The CIA actually thought these were missile silos at one point. They sent a spy and they found out they were just homes.
@@ukazap really, I actually never saw a picture of Apple Park before. impressive!
@@kamion53 yep, they rip off the design
Whoa. As a hakka descendat living in Indonesia. I understand why i prefer small compact residence to live now.. 😀
these buildings are amazing - hope they restore all of them and even build new ones - makes for a great neighboorhood if you want one and get along with people!!!
Wow...... another great educational video, I wish it had been longer and showed their living space in more detail, but I loved it
I appreciate a good movie whether it is historically accurate or not. My grandmother was from Fujian-ty for this cool video💜🙏
Nice. I've never managed to learn much about China (which causes me a mountain of frustration), but I'm fascinated by the Tulou. They are one of the most interesting things I've seen, managing to have family homes, community, strategic defense and self-reliance in one single building. Thank you for this video, it has some very important details I didn't know about Tulou.
I am proud of my Hakka blood and culture.
Visiting a tulou is on my bucket list. What a fascinating innovation for cooperative living and security.
It’s not cultural appropriation, it’s just Hollywood and art in general from ancient times to today. Anachronisms, wrong locations, wrong entire etc are the norm regardless if the story is in a Western setting or not or whether the artist is Western out not.
I’ve seen a Chinese Western. That was a hoot.
A "rich history" indeed! Another great story. If I were a young man I would love to spend a year with them studying their culture. So interesting.
Please do so, the locals will warmly welcome you, better if you know chinese language
@@relaxwhc Thank you. Sadly I am no longer young enough to partake on such adventure. I truly wish I had known then what I know now. While I can't condone the Chinese government I have met some wonderful people years ago in relation to my work and I truly love watching some regularly on RUclips. Like people everywhere, the Chinese people are no different in my opinion - They live, have families and take care of themselves the best they can given their circumstances. It's the country Chinese I find resilient, creative and resourceful. We could all learn much from each other.
That's a nice and sustainable idea for apartment!
Great info! Thank you for providing it as I had no idea of the timeline discrepancy.
Thank you for this fascinating video. As I don't watch Disney movies, wouldn't have known about the Tulou or the Hakka.
This is beautiful, in my culture “Tulou” means excuse me, or something you’d say when passing an elder.
Reminds me of when high school me made a list of inaccuracies in the Mummy. They have all the resources to do research, or use consultants. This makes them, especially Disney, look so stupid, let alone disrespectful.
That man is so happy, you cam just see it in his soul.
I am from Fujian and I went to this place back in 2009 when I was visiting China, it was amazing! wish I spent more time there
These are a super interesting bit of colloquial architecture in China. If I ever make it back to that country, I really need to spend more time examining the nuance of Chinese architecture, as there’s so much of it that hasn’t jumped the language barrier.
Its interesting how people are fawning over these examples of folk architecture in China. Those of us who have made China a point of serious study, have been well aware of these structures. It took a Disney film, with lots of inaccuracies to highlight these buildings. What is truly bothersome and to the nations shame is what the Chinese themselves have done in terms of preserving their cultural patrimony. The Japanese and Koreans are way better at this game. Take for example the capital city of Beijing. When the CC finally took over China, in 1949, they embarked on a campaign to modernize Beijing, and in doing so, they destroyed much of the city's fantastic, unique and grand character. They began to demolish the great walls and towers that gave Beijing a distinction not matched anywhere in the world. The walls were substantial, thick, and ran for miles. Apart from the Great Wall itself, it was the greatest series of fortifications in China. Not only the walls, but temples and whole neighborhoods, (hutongs), were wiped away. Only a few sections have survived to give one an idea how much of the residential look of the city appeared only a few decades ago. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards attacked anything that was considered, "feudal," and decided to destroy the Imperial Palace. It took Premier Chou En Lai's order of troops to protect this treasure, that kept it intact.The city was actually built according to strict plans, and the Emperor and the Imperial palace was the very center of it all. It was a superb example of Chinese city planning that had a tradition that went back to the Han Dynasty. Beijing is now just another chaotic, modern city, with architects putting up egotistical buildings with little or no reference to the land or culture.
@@luissantiago8446 Oh definitely, the current regime is still so desperately chasing an architectural legitimacy to shore up their decades of foibles and failings. And only now are they beginning to realize that might come with any degree of confidence from their own history instead of chasing a western modernist aesthetic. But despite all that, there's so much architectural history of the global south that just isn't taught as much as it could be in contemporary education.
This is amazing structure apartement design
tulous just tickles me in all the right places, thanks for the concrete details about em, like how its build and layouted and for the nice interior shots, dahm i love em so much, i hope theres a documentary or summin on the hakka people so i can see more of em. it might be a similar story to venice or tenochtitlan, just people finding themselves with nowhere left to run after someone else goes about invading all over the place, and so they build up a collective defensive structures that happen to look hella fine
This was very well put together
I had such high hopes for the live action.. they could have done so much more with it
And I'd totally watch a movie about the Hakka and this whole history, especially an animated kid's film. You don't have to pick and choose, you can be accurate and make more than one 🤷♀️
Watch Big Fish and Begonia then, beautiful animation based off of Chinese Mythology
Im hakanese. Lived in indonesia. Now i know, why they move around. Thank you for the story
Wow I love this concept
SUPER interesting. TY for putting together the video
Mullan gives a romanticised view of ancient China. It is entertainment, rather than an accurate historical documentary, so I don’t see any harm in portraying different aspects of Chinese culture, even if inaccurate. It has brought this interesting Chinese building to our attention, when we would never have seen before. It has made something else I want to see in China when I next visit
A tempered, sane, and balanced person.
Educate yourselves Disney. It’s always about the money for you greedy machine, shame on you.
ruclips.net/video/oJ5MoXEKkKw/видео.html
Really well thought out building!
That is so weird, it looks almost identical to the globe theatre in London... I guess people think alike and at times transcends cultural boundaries.
I don’t think Disney is interested in historical accuracy. We can speculate where their interest lies.
as so wasnt Ronbin Hood.... Disney also never said it was... But then Chinese movies back in China are?....
if they did a robin hood movie in china, I think that would be a very cool story even though it would be completely inaccurate, that said, why does a Disney movie have to be based in reality, it was a good movie, not a history lesson.
*sigh*
It has to be based on reality because Mulan is (most likely) an actual historical figure not a fictional one from old wives folktales. She is a person who lived in a CERTAIN era, CERTAIN kingdom and with a CERTAIN culture that defined and shaped her when China was still divided into several kingdoms fighting for dominance. It's like taking Napoleon and making him a British general in the 2nd world war...makes no sense right? And Napoleon loses a lot of character depth and historical meaning that way.
@@rhuonaChanel your straw man argument doesn’t deserve a rebuttal....
Super video! Thank you!
Beautiful information. Thanks
The US thought these were “missile silos” because they saw pictures from space of this place.
They probably thought the wuhan flu came from these buildings
Classic hakka story, my teach talks about it all the time back when I was in the middle school in Yongding
the hakka rnt a ethnic minority tho, they r still considered han chinese
Great story. I was fortunate to stay in a Tulou in 2009. That’s where I learned the phrase 马桶 .
i think in the video there was one shot where the uncle was walking outside and you could see a modern electric rice cooker really shifted my perspective on people living in old houses - they can be modernised too!
this is an interesting video, i really enjoyed this. Disney is not who you turn to for authenticity, its who you turn to for fantasy. So not a big deal, but it was a catapult leading to this conversation which is amazing. so no regrets please.
Living in a social, self-sufficient compound like that seems interesting. Polar opposite of US-style single family homes, which hardly builds any sort of community within the neighborhood.
go live in one then dumbass
@@바보Queen What does it feel like to be brain dead?
@@바보Queen are u okay? you come off as a bit peculiar.
Well at least now we are all interested in the background of what we see in movies. Learned a lot thanks
Disney has always been about fantasy not history. They may use historical aspects to denote a time in history or period. Snow White for instance. There are cultural time references everywhere. Pinocchio is another. People are getting bent out of shape for this, and turning this movie into something personal. Its ridiculous, and frankly, silly.
Just have been here yesterday. Very interesting place.
So basically Its like Jamie Oliver trying to make fried race.
I don't mind Disney using tulou for Mulan and don't see any controversy in it. It IS cool and I like it. It helps showcase Chinese culture. May as well trash on original Disney Mulan for adding mushu and other elements not in the ballad haha
That was absolutely fascinating
This is so cool
Who is here after watching the movie "Mulan"
When US launched satellites in the space and spied other countries in early 60’, they saw Tulou houses and thought China has intercontinental ballistic missile base. 😅😅😅
Great content
I knew about these through New Journey to the West, the korean show.
Get your fact right!!!! .Hakka people are not a minority people in China . They are a Han people too
If not they would not have to suffer from the one child policy .
A vlog wanting to promote chinese culture which does not know that the hakka are not a minority people. Shameful! Do we need to trust your information anymore?!
I like the concept of the structure of Tulou house so cool plan
Excellent article, I learned something new, Thank You
Super eye roll. I've seen more than enough Japanese anime that blend and smear Western cultures together into a stupid appropreated hot mess.
Lol im Chinese, and when i was young and watching anime, and they try to have Chinese character? Oof. It's so cringy that they are given 'Chinese' cloth and speak 'Chinese' that I had a hard time understanding and has to READ THE JAPANESE SUBS to actually understand.
lol, never rely on Americans or the English to accurately depict history.
please show more videos. they are fantastic and fascinating.I would love to live there.
do you u know that hakka people were spread all around asia, and most are now spread around the island of Borneo, which contains of Indonesia n Malaysia. which the majority are still staying at Singkawang, West Borneo Indonesia and Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia
Who cares if Mulan is not accurate?!
Westerners take stories from medieval Europe all the time that are terribly inaccurate. We just do it because it's cool.
Learned something new!
There's nothing wrong with putting stereotyped elements together in a movie, especially one for kids who wouldn't understand the details anyhow, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with cultural appropriation. All culture is appropriated.
It's a frictional story anyways, why are people hung up on historical accuracy?
I, for one, want to thank Disney to choose my hometown Nanjing Tulou as Mulan's hometown. The movie is a great promotion and awareness campaign for Tulou on the international stage. When introducing Tulou to a foreigner, guess what most Chinese people are going to say? Most likely, it's going to be something like "Have you heard of Tulou? the huge round buildings in Disney’s Mulan movie?" It gives Tulou instant credibility.
Loved this story
This is so interesting
I think they should make kind of tourism & cultural attractions or Resort like Tulou😍😍❤️❤️
It was really interesting to know about the tulous culture
That is why I only watch Chinese made movies. The classic movie of Mulan played by Ivy Ling Po is the greatest in my opinion in depicting actual history.
Amazing structure
So perfect round shape that machine feel jealous perfect symmetry they are perfect engineer of their era
Incredible...tu Lou.