Oh come on...leave us not be so sanctimonious. Could it at all have been possible that Mulan decided--of her own free will--to refuse an appointment to a major government position for the sake of her love for her father? That takes some serious character, to ignore ambition in favor of the love of the family, and those rare souls who do it are so often second-guessed by everyone around them. Frankly, I say kudos to the woman who sacrificed so great an honor for the sake of the father she loved more than herself.

We ought to be holding up that particular story as a true example of that old threadbare bogey of noblesse oblige--the people come first. And to her, the people were right in her own home.