Mulan star BD Wong says Li Shang is sexually fluid

25 March 2021, 12:32

Mulan flirts with Merida in Once Upon a Time

By Sam Prance

Mulan fans have often wondered if Li Shang is gay or bisexual and now BD Wong has just confirmed that he's queer.

Mulan fans we have some important news. BD Wong has just revealed that he thinks his character Li Shang is sexually fluid.

Ever since the animated Mulan movie came out in 1998, people have speculated that Li Shang is queer. Li Shang is Mulan's captain and love interest. However, when Li Shang first meets Mulan, Mulan is disguised as a man and it's only later in the film, after the pair have already developed a close relationship, that Li Shang finds out that Mulan is actually a woman.

Given that Li Shang appears to fall in love with Mulan when he thinks that she's a man, many fans argue that he must be bi or on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Now BD Wong, who voices Li Shang, has let slip that he believes that Li Shang is queer.

Is Li Shang bi? Mulan star BD Wong says Li Shang is sexually fluid. Picture: Disney

Last week (Mar 17), BD Wong was a guest on the Las Culturistas podcast and co-host and SNL star Bowen Yang asked: "I have a very important question to ask. BD Wong, do you think Captain Li Shang was attracted to Ping?" Ping, as Mulan fans will know, is the man Mulan pretended to be when she joined the army and developed a relationship with Li Shang.

BD then answered: "I would like to think that he was. I don't want to disappoint anyone and I don't want to be a coward or anything like that...ok, but you know what. OK, no. Fluidity is a very important thing to acknowledge. When we made the movie, fluidity was not a word. We didn't talk about fluidity. Now we have fluidity."

BD continued: "Now we watch Shang and his choices and his actions, and see it through fluidity." He ended his thoughts about Li Shang being attracted to Ping by saying: "So in that case, I'm recalibrating my answer. Of course, he was. Of course, he was! What other reason would there be?"