The History of Dragon Ladies…
Posted: June 28th, 2012 | 1 Comment »…a piece I did for Foreign Policy on dragon ladies that was fun. And, just before everyone piles in, I am aware that “dragon lady” was originally a western construct (I almost sound like an academic there!) going back to the Terry and the Pirates comic strip and Yellow Peril novels. However, it is interesting that it is also now used in China pretty widely. Anyway, here’s my quick summary in the word count allowed…a dash though an empress, an empress dowager, Madame’s Chiang, Mao and others right up to Madame Gu!
the Empress Wu – trashed by the Confucians!
Dowager Empress Ci Xi – poisoned cakes to take over
Bad girl, bad dad…
Madame Chiang – who even vamped Churchill!
Madame Mao – not a lot of redeeming features here I’m afraid
Madame Gu – a dragon lady for the 21st century?
I just read Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao for the World Party Challenge! As I say in my post that I just put up, I didn’t care for it that much; mainly beasuce of the narrative style. Will have to think about when and if I want to try Anchee Min again.BTW, I got the message that the June link for the challenge was broken..-= Valerieb4s last blog .. =-.