Jia Ling's Mulan spoof sparked debates online. (Photo : Boyouti)
A month after her performance at Dragon TV’s “Happy Comedy” program, Jia Ling finally expressed her regret for spoofing the legendary heroine Mulan.
On Jia’s Sina Weibo account, she wrote: “Hua Mulan is a respected heroine. It is obviously inappropriate and against the public's aesthetic habits to feature her in a comedy program."
She added that "art has no bounds, but tradition does."
Song Chengshu, director of the research center, accepted the apology of Jia and her team, taking it as a positive signal that they have reflected on the issue and accepted the views of experts and netizens.
“Mulan, with her spirit already deeply rooted in the Chinese nation, has become a name card of the country to the outside world,” said Song.
Jia’s portrayal of Mulan as a cross-dressing warrior sparked debates online. It was followed with a letter from the Mulan Culture Research Center of China, asking the comedian to apologize.
The open letter said that it was a vulgar comedy, which on the surface is eye-catching, but on the deep is based on various forms of disintegration of the people's national spirit.
A poll initiated by Sina Henan, a popular local Internet portal in Henan Province, was joined by more than 100,000 people as of July 19, 4 p.m.
There were netizens who said that artistic interpretation is acceptable since Mulan is not a real, historic figure.
On the other hand, many disagreed, saying that artistic creation has a bottom line and should not be vulgar or merely spoofing.
In another news, the director of "Monk Comes Down the Mountain" is also being asked to say sorry after the film "smeared the image" of Taoism and a Taoist priest.
The vice chairman of China's Taoist Association asked director Chen Kaige to apologize on Sunday.
