"Dragon Lady" in Chinese Culture
Whereas "Dragon lady" is a stereotype in Western culture, it is not in Eastern culture. For one thing, Western dragons are fire-breathing. Eastern dragons mostly live in water and their job is to bring rain. The term sometimes has a positive connotation in Chinese.
Longnü (龍女, dragon girl) is a disciple of the bodhisattva Guanyin in folklore. In The Return of the Condor Heroes, Xiaolongnü (Little Dragon Maiden) is the female main character.
Read more about this topic: Dragon Lady (stereotype)
Famous quotes containing the words dragon, lady and/or culture:
“Sir Eglamour, that worthy knight,
He took his sword and went to fight;
And as he rode both hill and dale,
Armed upon his shirt of mail,
A dragon came out of his den,
Had slain, God knows how many men!”
—Samuel Rowlands (1570?–1630?)
“I askèd a thief to steal me a peach
He turned up his eyes
I ask’d a lithe lady to lie her down
Holy & meek she cries—
As soon as I went
An angel came.
He wink’d at the thief
And smild at the dame—
And without one word said
Had a peach from the tree
And still as a maid
Enjoy’d the lady.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than as a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that.”
—Henry David David (1817–1862)