disneytrivia:

In the climactic battle of Mulan, when Mulan disarms Shan-Yu with a fan, she is using an actual martial arts technique. Tessenjutsu (鉄扇術) is the martial art of the Japanese war fan, or tessen (鉄扇). Tessen were folding fans with spokes made of heavy plates of iron which were designed to look like normal, harmless fans when folded. They were used in combat both defensively and as weapons.

(Source: imdb.com, via pochii)