Booty and Junk: The Salty Life and Crimes of Zheng Yi Sao

Who’s got two swords and went from poor fisher woman to pirate Queen in less than a decade?Today, Zing ‘N’ Jolts set sail for the early 1800s to track the facts on a woman who truly defied the patriarchal society of her birth. For young girls growing up in a poor fish village, there were two options: stay where you are, or sex work as a means of upward mobility (err…horizontal mobility?).Today’s heroine took the second option, and boy did she use it to jump the ranks. Becoming internationally renowned for her efforts above a Flower Boat, she seduced a pirate king and – when he died – took over the biggest pirate armada to ever sail.Today: Booty & Junk: The Life and Crimes of Zheng Yi Sao. Let’s get shocked!Resources • Mr. Glasspoole and the Chinese Pirates https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:810058 • Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790 – 1810, by Dian H. Murray • A narrative of the captivity and sufferings of John Turner ... among the Ladrones or pirates, on the coast of China showing the manners and customs of the natives ... in the year 1807