Women at Sea: Lilac Chen Part I

When women came from the far east, or Asia if you prefer, to North America, they were not always well treated and welcomed. Particularly children - both girls and boys - were used as sexual slaves and made into what they may not have been in their home state or wished to be for themselves.

The story of Lilac Chen, whose beautiful name does not resemble her unfortunate life, is an extreme example. Swept from her home and over the sea, she may never have amounted to much. But Lilac, a fighter, a survivor, made more of herself than most of us do. Thanks to the wonderful editors of Victorian Women, c 1981, we know a bit about this amazing child who fought so hard to become an amazing woman:

I was six when I came to this country in 1893. My worthless father gambled every cent away, and so, left us poor. I think my mother's family was well-to-do, because our grandmother used to dress in silk and satin and always brought us lots of things. And the day my father took me, he fibbed and said he was taking me to see my grandmother, that I was very fond of, you know, and I got on the ferry boat with him, and Mother was crying, and I couldn't understand why she would cry if I go to see Grandma  She gave me a new toothbrush and a new washing in a blue bag when I left her\. When I saw her cry I said, "\Don't cry, Mother, I'm just going to see Grandma and be right back." And that worthless father, my own father, imagine, had every inclination to sell me, and he sold me on the ferry boat. Locked me in the cabin while he was negotiating my sale. And I kicked and screamed and screamed and they wouldn't open the door till after some time, you see, I suppose he had made his bargain and had left the steamer; Then they opened the door and let me out and I went up and down, up and down, here and there, couldn't find him. And he had left me, you see, with a strange woman. That woman, it was suppertime, took me to Ningpo, China, to eat, and I refused to eat, I wanted to go home, and then she took me to Shanghai and left me with another woman. That woman never asked me to work and was very kind to me, and I was there, I don't know for how long. Then a woman from San Francisco came, and picked me up and brought me over.  

And the horror has only begun for poor Lilac Chen. But that is all for tonight; isn't it?

Header:Ladies of Vancouver via China.org

People: The Pirate Patriot Of Taiwan

War Junks in China's Anson's Bay by E. Duncan, 1834 (source)

We talked about Cheng Chih Lung, one of the founding fathers of the great Chinese pirate confederations, back in February. Cheng had the balls to meddle in Manchu politics and was summarily divested of his head for the trouble. His son, a young man who went by the lyrical names of Kuo Hsing Yeh or Koxinga, took up where Cheng left off.

Born in 1624 in Nagasaki, Japan, Koxinga was not immediately embraced by his freebooting father. His mother was Japanese and there is no real documentation of her status in relation to Cheng. She may have been one of his wives but it is more likely that she was a concubine or prostitute. Given the enmity between the Chinese and Japanese, Cheng appears to have been slow to warm to his offspring.

Once he did recognize Koxinga, however, the young man was instructed in every aspect of the family business. When his father was executed in 1646, Koxinga was ready to step up. Since the Manchu - on Cheng's unfortunate urging - had taken over Hsiamen and Fukien province, once the seat of Cheng's power, Koxinga pulled up stakes and moved his operation to Taiwan. Because of his obviously bitter hatred for the Manchu, Koxinga was followed not only by his pirates but by the remaining supporters of the now outlaw Ming Dynasty.

Koxinga went into full rebel mode, attacking and sinking (not just holding for ransom as was customary) Manchu junks, both merchant and navy. His pirates blockaded the Yangtse River at the Pacific Ocean, cutting off the Manchu seat of power, Nanking, from all trade by water.

In 1649 he began a campaign to retake his father's homeland, the island of Hsiamen (now Amboy Island) south of modern Hong Kong. He succeeded in 1650, and used the island as a base once again while maintaining his presence in Taiwan. He took back most of Fukien province, driving the Manchu out completely by 1651. The Manchu in Nanking threw up their hands and called their considerably less powerful navy off. For ten years Konxinga ruled the South China Sea as the head of the largest pirate confederation in China.

By 1659, Koxinga was following in his father's footsteps on more scores than just piracy. Approached by Ming rebels, he agreed to lend his support to their attempt to drive the Manchu out of Nanking and take back China. He sent his ships, laden with arms and Ming soldiers, up the Yangtse River. Word had been leaked to the Manchu Emperor, however. Koxinga's ships were trapped and destroyed with all aboard killed or scattered. The Ming rebellion was dead, and Koxinga's pirates had suffered heavy losses in ships, men and arms.

The Manchu, now on the offensive, took back Fukien province and breached Koxinga's island stronghold at Hsiamen. The pirate prince pulled out, and limped back to his base in Taiwan. Finding that the Dutch were making inroads into Taiwanese trade, Koxinga turned his back on the Manchu and began a campaign against the new European enemy.

He had a good deal of success, managing to keep the Dutch from colonization and keeping himself at the head of a powerful pirate operation. Though he never returned to China proper, his revamped fleet ranged from China to Japan making Koxinga and his pirates wealthy. He died of natural causes in 1683, a successful, respected sea raider.

To this day, Kuo Hsing Yeh, known as Koxinga, is considered a national hero in Taiwan. He is somewhat of a Robin Hood figure, and is remembered as both a defender of indigenous culture and a master of the sea.

People: Emperor Of Hsiamen

The Western hemisphere certainly has no corner on the pirate market. As long as people have been heading out in boats, they've been committing robbery aboard them. It's only a matter of degrees but sometimes your humble hostess loses perspective and needs to step back and see the big picture. So today, a man who was surely part of that big picture: Cheng Chih Lung.

Cheng's origins - like so many pirates of all nations - are foggy at best. Born some time in the late 16th century, probably to a family already in the business of trade on the water, Cheng was the owner of a substantial fleet by the 1620's. He had both merchant junks (pictured above) for carrying trade goods and war junks for protecting his trade ships and raiding others'. Cheng's operation was based on what was then known as Hsiamen (Amoy Island today). Cheng distinguished himself from his fellows by being willing to trade with the Dutch and the Portuguese who were just starting their imperialistic runs in the far east.

In the early 1630's, political powers shifted in the area and trade along with it. This allowed Cheng to step in and take control of the entire coast of Fukien province - roughly from what is now Vietnam in the south up to the mouth of the Yangtse River south of Japan including the islands of Hainan and Taiwan. It was a vast area, but Cheng's expertise and his powerful fleet that saw to it no one else was able to conduct trade in Cheng's waters made him virtual seafaring Emperor.

Cheng's piratical raids on trade junks not his own led to a system of protection money, which was a fairly common occurrence in the Chinese merchant trade. Cheng's war junks would seize and board an unfamiliar ship and, to avoid having his goods and vessel confiscated, the Captain would pay a set price in coin. Life was pretty sweet for Cheng and his pirate crews and trade made everybody rich.

In 1641 the Ming Emperor in Nanking appointed Cheng an Admiral, tacitly blessing Cheng's sprawling operation. Unfortunately for Cheng, this gave him the idea that he could play politician and that's when - as has been the case for so many others throughout history - things fell apart. When the Manchu raided Nanking in 1644, Cheng invited the Ming Emperor to set up court in Fukien province. With the Emperor under his thumb, Cheng began running the show. When the Emperor no longer served his purpose, Cheng did a deal with the Manchus in Nanking. Most historians agree that Cheng was responsible for the death of the Ming Emperor that year.

The Manchu Emperor quite obviously saw Cheng for what he was and ordered him to come to court. Having served his purpose, Cheng was imprisoned upon his arrival at Nanking and shortly thereafter beheaded for piracy. His son, Koxinga, moved what was left of the family business to Taiwan and began a bloody campaign of rebuilding and revenge. But that, Brethren, is another story for another time.