Please, Bring Honour To Us All
- Arissa Farha
- Oct 28, 2025
- 4 min read
Arissa, our Music writer, traces how “Honour to Us All” swapped tea ceremonies for female empowerment, and why fans are all for it.
Imagine this: the soft chime of a familiar tune drifts through your screen—"Bring honour to us all," the chorus hums, delicate and ancient like soft silk. However, the scene wasn’t Mulan’s matchmaking scene. There are no powdered white faces, no trembling hands clutching a teapot to pour tea with etiquette. Instead, there’s a cascade of TikTok edits:
Girls of every shade and age rise together—an unshakeable chorus of reclaiming space once denied. Women no longer wait for permission; their gaze is steady, and their voices thunder for the world to listen. Around them, drag performers twirl in crimson and gold, spinning art and independence into a dance of unapologetic identity.
What was once a melody of submission has been reborn as an anthem of strength. A song that once demanded conformity now celebrates individuality, and the irony is delightfully poetic.
Fan culture, which is unpredictable, wild and wonderfully creative, has always been a space where art takes on a new life. But, on platforms like TikTok, for instance, it’s become a revolution in motion. The song “Honour to Us All” from Disney’s “Mulan” once instructed young women to obey, to please and to perfect themselves for the harshness of society's gaze.
But now, in the 21st century, where time has changed and evolved, this song is a soundtrack for defiance through an editing trend. A rallying cry for beauty that doesn’t beg for approval and honour that comes not from obedience, but from authenticity.
Where It All Began
But before understanding the power of its rebirth, we must first return to where it all began. The original meaning of “Honour to Us All”.
In Disney’s “Mulan” (1998), “Honour to Us All” was never meant to be the sound of a rebel. Beneath its cheerful strings and harmonies lay the quiet ache of expectation. As the melody unfolds, women are being dressed, powdered and painted. Each brushstroke is a reminder that their worth as a woman is measured not by who they are, but by how well they obey.
The following lyrics, “Men want girls with good taste. Calm, obedient, who work fast pace, with good breeding and a tiny waist. You’ll bring honour to us all.” The lyrics praise obedience, grace and beauty as the keys to a woman’s success, urging them to bring “honour” not through their hearts but through perfection, through standards they didn’t set for themselves.
It’s a melody draped in silk and silence. A lullaby for conformity. Mulan, the film’s heroine, moves through the scenes like a ghost out of place. She trips, fumbles, hesitates and breaks the rhythm. She embodies the tension between individuality and expectations that were set on her without her consent.
Through her, the song itself becomes more than an instruction or manual; it becomes a mirror of what countless women have faced — the relentless pressure to perform for acceptance, to be flawless for the world’s approval.
This is exactly why this modern transformation of this classic song feels so satisfying. Because before fans could reclaim the song, they had to recognise the weight it has discreetly carried. The suffocating beauty of its original intent.
Honor to us All… Again?
As “Honour to Us All” found its second life on TikTok, fans across the world began using this Disney song in fan edits on TikTok that sparkle with power, pride and unapologetic self-expression. What began as a playful nod to Disney’s nostalgia soon evolved into a global movement, with fans across every background and fandom reimagining what honour truly means.
From the anime and gaming communities came montages of iconic heroines — Sailor Moon and her friends being heroes to their people, Zelda protecting the universe with her magic and even the newest addition of Rumi, Zoey and Mira from K-pop Demon Hunters that sealed the Honmoon from the demons… Each edit pulses in time to Mulan’s once-restrictive melody.
The trend didn’t just stop at fiction. Real women soon filled the frame: athletes crossing finish lines, activists raising their voices and even famous actors such as Emma Watson and Nicola Coughlan voicing humanitarian rights. K-pop fans too joined in with their own spin, crafting fierce tributes to female idols whose confidence and artistry command stages worldwide.
It was as though every creator of those edits took a fragment of the song’s original pain and re-wove it into something majestic.
“Destiny, guard our girls. And our future as it fast unfurls. Please look kindly on these cultured pearls. Each a perfect porcelain doll. Please bring honour to us all.”
The line that once demanded perfection now celebrated authenticity; the same words that once caged women now crowned them and protected them. This is the magic of fan culture: its ability to transform art, in this case, music, into a living, breathing and beautiful language. Music, after all, does not exist in silence. It grows alongside the listeners, absorbing their happiness, their anger, and their resistance. Every edit, every remix, every comment under those empowering edited videos is another heartbeat in the song’s evolution.
“Honour to Us All” reminds us that music is never frozen in its first meaning. What was once a single story of oppression has turned into a collection of empowerment. The old melody has found a new meaningful soul.
The truest honour is not in obedience but in the courage to redefine what honour means at all.
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