By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken
Dragons are among the most ubiquitous cross-cultural figures. They appear prominently in myths originating in virtually every part of the world. The belief in the existence of dragons was well established by the time the Chinese lunar calendar was created around 2600 BCE, incorporating the dragon as the only fictional animal in the cycle of years. One plausible hypothesis is that the universal awe of these creatures arose when humans began mining for metals and uncovered dinosaur bones; the dragon was born out of a need for explaining these phenomenal relics. With minor variations, cross-cultural graphic representations of these revered and feared creatures are very similar.
The Dragon Lady: A Very Different Origin
The dragon lady, a much newer concept unrelated to female mythological dragons, was initially a form of new world racial bigotry. The term was created by the media in the US around the end of the 19th century. Anti-Asian sentiment was endemic at that time, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), and the migration of many Chinese residents from the southwestern US to the border town of Mexicali, Baja California (see Van Hoewyk’s article elsewhere in this issue). The New York-based Asian American Writers’ Workshop credits (or perhaps discredits) The New York Times for first publicizing the term “Dragon Lady” in reporting about the Chinese Empress Tsu-Hsi (Cixi), who ruled from 1861 to 1908.
Dowager Empress Tsu-Hsi. Tsu-Hsi began as a royal prostitute serving the eighth Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Xianfeng; after giving birth to his first and only son, she was officially elevated to concubine status. Xianfeng ruled from 1850 to 1861, when he died young at age 30. After the Emperor’s death, he was succeeded by their son, who was five at the time; the Dowager Empress Tsu-Hsi thus wielded power in China from 1861-1908, although it was a checkered reign. Reportedly she was responsible for the death of eight ministers who were appointed as regents for the child, and then she had absolute control. She was described in The New York Times as “The wicked witch of the East, a reptilian dragon lady.”
Others credit the term Dragon Lady to cartoonist Milton Caniff, who authored the comic strip Terry and the Pirates. Published in the Chicago Tribune for about four decades, beginning in the early 1930, it included a central character who was a Chinese woman pirate called “The Dragon Lady.” The term took on the meaning of a Chinese woman who was wily and used her sexual allure to rise from obscurity to great power – but the term Dragon Ladies soon morphed to include any Asian women with those characteristics.
Madame Nhu. Perhaps the most famous Dragon Lady of the mid-20th century was Trần Lệ Xuân, aka Madame Nhu, the sister-in-law of Ngô Đình Diệm. As President of what was then South Vietnam, Diệm exercised the powers of a dictator from 1955 until 1963, when he died in a coup along with his brother and chief political advisor, Ngô Đình Nhu, Madame Nhu’s husband. During Diệm’s reign, Madame Nhu functioned as first lady and was herself elected to the National Assembly. Although she had converted from Buddhism to Catholicism to marry Nhu, she fought for reforms for women opposed by the Church, including divorce and the right to use birth-control. After the coup, she fled to Italy and remained there until her death at age 86, still being referred to as The Dragon Lady.
Non-Asian Dragon Ladies
It was not long before the term was applied to powerful women of other races. The politician who was a force to be reckoned with in the California Democratic Party, Carmen Warschaw (1917-2012), was called the Dragon Lady by other politicians in both parties. Warschaw was Jewish, so the term with roots in racial bigotry had nuances of antisemitism. Well-known within California for her philanthropy, especially to educational and medical institutions, she was the first woman to chair the California Fair Employment Practices Commission with the mission of fighting discrimination in housing and employment. She was named The Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1976.
With the rise of feminism, and the entry of women into careers from which women were formerly excluded, the image of a Dragon Lady, a fiery powerful woman, began to have international appeal. In Mexico, one of the best-known women in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) matches is Lady Dragon or Lady Drago; in her ten years of performing, the 4′ 9″ star has not revealed whether she was given another name when she was born. Muna Shrestha, from Nepal, also wrestles under the name of Lady Dragon. In the early 1990s, the American martial artist and actor Cynthia Rothrock was featured in a couple of films titled Lady Dragon.
And Last but Not Least!
Perhaps the best-known Dragon Lady in the 21st century is a fictional character in HBO’s medieval fantasy drama Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen, the mother of dragons (actually, it was three dragons that hatched from petrified dinosaur eggs). Based on the fantasy book series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin, the first of which is A Game of Thrones (1996), the series is viewed in 207 countries and territories. Adored by millions of fans, Daenerys filled the stereotype of the Dragon Lady, a beautiful woman rising from obscurity to achieve the ultimate in power. Well, almost. In the final episode, to the horror of people all over the world, Daenerys went mad and, with her dragon Drogon breathing fire, devastated whole cities and people – which may reset the meaning of the term Dragon Lady.
In spite of Daenerys’ ignominious end, modern Asian-American women are reclaiming the appellation as meaning power with a socially approved implication. Some years ago, the book Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire (1999), edited by Sonia Shah, presented writings of Asian-American feminists. The book has become an inspiration to many women who, rather than finding the accusation of being a dragon lady noxious, revel in the term Dragon Lady as recognizing their power and their ability to exercise their skills.