A Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of East Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering or mysterious. The term's origin and usage is Western, not Chinese. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna May Wong, the term was coined from the villain in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates. The term has been applied to powerful Asian women and to a number of racially Asian film actresses. The stereotype 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. It has also been used to refer to any powerful but prickly woman, usually in a derogatory fashion.
Read more about Dragon Lady: Background, Terry and The Pirates, Usage, "Dragon Lady" in Chinese Culture
Famous quotes containing the words dragon and/or lady:
“And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
The old Dragon underground,
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway,
And, wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)