I’m not exactly sure where my research began, but I’ve got this thing about female Chinese pirates (wha?…I don’t tell you what to think about when you’re “spankin’ the pig”…), the most famous of which may be Cheng I Sao AKA Ching Shih. She was essentially a stone-cold, freak badass: started as a whore, married the pirate Cheng I, went on to eventually command a fleet of 2,000 ships, terrorized the coast of 19th century southern China, and later hooked up with her adopted son (again…wha? call it the ‘reverse Woody Allen‘ if you must). I half assed tried to do some research on her and other ‘ladies of the black flag’ when I was over in Beijing earlier this year, but with little result. First of all I was in the wrong part of the country, had absurd language skills, and we are talking history here. The closest I came was a NatGeo special in english about pirates: I sensed I had tuned in just as they were finishing up ‘history’ to talk about modern day piracy, the facts of which may surprise you.

Anyway, images of the actual Cheng I Sao are obviously hard to come by, if not nil, but I found this artist depiction above on DeviantArt.com thanks to mooncalfe, who was kind enough to let me use it here. Definitely check out his site, buy something if you can - he’s quite an artist, and also wanted me to mention some ‘libertys’ he took in the illustration of she and her son/lover: there is no mention of her being able to paint with her toes, or command a zombie army (see his notes below the enlargement)…

A book, Bold in Her Breeches, is a starting point if you want to continue your research on female pirates in general, though I have yet to read it. In a notebook I have this list of other Chinese female pirates and their alias’, though I am no longer sure where this list came from, and I can find no other info on any of them… But of course if I break new ground, I’ll pass the info on. BTW, there’s a Chinese pirate in the 3rd of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ francise, so I’m ahead of the curve here and don’t be surprised if Chinese Pirates (or CP’s) suddenly get huge. But don’t forget, it’s REALLY about the FCP’s-