Dragon Lady
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Dragon Lady is usually a
Background
Although sources such as the Oxford English Dictionary
Page Act of 1875
The Page Act of 1875 limited the number of Chinese women allowed to immigrate into the United States, barring women from China, Japan, or any other Asian origin to enter the USA. This was a part of the
Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates was an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist
Patterson... asked: "Ever do anything on the Orient?" Caniff hadn't. "You know," Joe Patterson mused, "adventure can still happen out there. There could be a beautiful lady pirate, the kind men fall for." In a few days Caniff was back with samples and 50 proposed titles; Patterson circled Terry and scribbled beside it and the Pirates.[10]
Caniff's biographer
Usage
Since the 1930s, when "Dragon Lady" became fixed in the English language, the term has been applied countless times to powerful East, Southeast and South Asian women, such as Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Nhu of Vietnam, Devika Rani of India, and to any number of Asian or Asian American film actresses. That stereotype—as is the case with other racial caricatures—has generated a large quantity of sociological literature.
Today, "Dragon Lady" is often applied anachronistically to refer to persons who lived before the term became part of American slang in the 1930s. For example, one finds the term in recent works about the "Dragon Lady"
Anna May Wong was the contemporary actress to assume the Dragon Lady role in American Cinema[18] in the movie Daughter of the Dragon, which premiered in 1931.[19] Josef von Sternberg's 1941 The Shanghai Gesture contains a performance by Ona Munson as 'Mother' Gin Sling, the proprietor of a gambling house, that bears mention within presentations of the genre. Contemporary actresses such as Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies may be constrained by the stereotype even when playing upstanding characters.[18] These actresses portrayed characters whose actions are more masculine, sexually promiscuous, and violent.[18] Lucy Liu is a 21st century example of the Hollywood use of the Dragon Lady image, in her roles in Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill, and Payback. Other American films in which Asian women are hyper-sexualized include The Thief of Baghdad, The Good Woman of Bangkok, and 101 Asian Debutantes, where Asian women are portrayed as prostitutes. Miss Saigon is an American musical with examples of this as well.
Hollywood costuming
Dragon Lady characters are visually defined by their emphasis on "otherness" and sexual promiscuity. An example of headwear for Dragon Lady costumes is the
See also
- Angry black woman
- Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire
- Ethnic stereotype
- Ethnic stereotypes in comics
- Femme fatale
Explanatory notes
- 1.Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, is described in such tones and the playwright all but uses the word dragon. She is "perfectly unbearable. Never met such a Gorgon ... I don’t really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth ..."
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1.
- ^ Sweet Mysteries of the Orient. Book review of The Asian Mystique, by Sheridan Prasso
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58648-394-4.
- ISBN 0-19-861186-2.
- ^ a b Harvey, Robert C. (1995). Annotated Index to Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates. ASIN: B0006PF3SS.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (2021-09-25). "Why Shang-Chi's Sister Had to Change for the Marvel Cinematic Universe". CBR. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
- ^ "Chinese Exclusion Act". AAPF. Archived from the original on 2019-11-24. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
- ^ a b c Wu Clark, Audrey (2012). "Disturbing Stereotypes: Fu Man/Chan and Dragon Lady Blossoms". Asian American Literature: Discourses and Pedagogies: 99–118.
- ^ a b c Shimizu, Celine Parreñas (2007). The Hypersexuality of Asian/American Women. Duke University Press. pp. 1–29.
- ^ "Escape Artist", Time, Monday, January 13, 1947.
- ISBN 0-19-585297-4.
- ^ Bok (pseudonym) (1932). Vampires of the China Coast. London: Herbert Jenkins.
- ISBN 978-1-56097-782-7.
- ISBN 0-679-73369-8.
- ISBN 978-0-312-29319-2.
- ^ For example, the review of Daughter of the Dragon" in The New York Times, August 22, 1931.
- ^ Bigelow, Poultney. "A New View of the Empress Dowager of China; Tsu Hsi, the Little Woman Who Rules the Celestial Empire and its Three Hundred Millions of People". The New York Times. June 26, 1904.
- ^ a b c Wang, HanYing (2012). Portrayals of Chinese Women's Images in Hollywood Mainstream Films— An Analysis of Four Representative Films of Different Periods. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China: Intercultural Communications Studies XXI. pp. 82–92.
- ^ Daughter of the Dragon, retrieved 2019-10-24
Further reading
- Lim, Shirley Jennifer (2005). A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Popular Culture, 1930–1960. American History and Culture. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5193-0.
- Ma, Sheng-Mei; Ma, Sheng-Mei (November 2001). "The Deathly Embrace: Orientalism and Asian-American Identity". Journal of Asian Studies. 60 (4). Association for Asian Studies: 1130–1133. S2CID 162248932.
- Menon, Elizabeth K. (2006). Evil by Design: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme Fatale. Asian American Experience. University of Illinois Press. Dewey: 305.40944/09034.
- Prasso, Sheridan (2005). The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-214-5.
- Shah, Sonia (1997). ISBN 978-0-89608-575-6.
- Tajima, Renee (1989). "Lotus Blossoms Don't Bleed". Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women. Boston: Beacon Press. Dewey: 305.40944/09034.
Additional Milton Caniff bibliography
- Abrams, Harry N. (1978). Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 978-0-8109-1612-8.
- Caniff, Milton Arthur (1975). Enter the Dragon Lady: From the 1936 classic newspaper adventure strip (The Golden age of the comics). Escondido, California: Nostalgia Press. ASIN: B0006CUOBW.
- Caniff, Milton Arthur (2007). The Complete Terry And The Pirates. San Diego, California: IDW (Idea and Design Works). ISBN 978-1-60010-100-7.
- Harvey, Robert C. and Milton Caniff (2002). Milton Caniff: Conversations. Conversations with Comic Artists. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-438-0.