Lai Choi San (Mountain of Wealth) was a 20th century Chinese pirate. She was the most powerful and well-known female pirate leader in Chinese history, rivaled perhaps only by Cheng I Sao of the previous century, commanding a fleet of some 12 junks in the area of Macao and the South China Sea during the 1920s and 30s. Though her fleet was based in South China sea, she frequented the East China Sea and some times to the Sulu sea near Palawan.
There is no documented evidence of her existence apart from the book I Sailed With Pirates by American journalist Aleko Lilius, published in 1930. Lai Choi San was one of several pirates that Lilius claims to have traveled with during the late 1920s. Lilius described her fleet as "twelve smooth-bore, medieval-looking cannons onboard, and two rather modern ones. Along the bulwarks of the junk were bolted rows of heavy iron plates". Her crew were referred to as ladrones by the Portuguese and, according to Lilius, were "all fearsome fellows, muscular bare-chested men who wore wide-brimmed hats and tied red kerchiefs around their necks and heads". Lai Choi San has been referred to as a female "Robin Hood" figure, however she and her crew were often paid protection money by local merchants and operated with little interference from either Portuguese or Chinese authorities since inheriting the fleet from her father upon his death.
She was the model for the Dragon Lady, one of the main villains which appeared in the comic, radio and television series Terry and the Pirates. The series creator Milton Caniff later claimed to have been inspired by reading a story about her. The character would heavily influence the stock character whose persona is usually portrayed as a beautiful yet cold-hearted villainess as seen in later popular culture.
Famous quotes containing the words lai and/or san:
“The My Lai soldier lifts me up again and again
and lowers me down with the other dead women and babies
saying, It’s my job. It’s my job.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“We had won. Pimps got out of their polished cars and walked the streets of San Francisco only a little uneasy at the unusual exercise. Gamblers, ignoring their sensitive fingers, shook hands with shoeshine boys.... Beauticians spoke to the shipyard workers, who in turn spoke to the easy ladies.... I thought if war did not include killing, I’d like to see one every year. Something like a festival.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)