Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Greatest Pirate Who Ever Lived
In 1801, a pirate named Zheng Yi was busy raiding Canton. Aside from
the prerequisite plundering and rum-drinking, he had given his men one
specific order: to break into a local brothel and bring him the
prostitute Zheng Yi Sao (郑一嫂), or “Zheng Yi’s wife”.
One might expect a sinister fate to have awaited Zheng Yi Sao upon
her deliverance to the pirate captain (rape, swiftly followed by murder,
being the most obvious). In actuality, Zheng Yi’s intentions were
considerably more gentlemanly. He intended to marry her. And recognizing that her current future prospects were rather limited, Zheng Yi Sao accepted.
But Zheng Yi Sao didn’t intend on spending the rest of her days as
some plunder-hungry pirate’s eye candy. She wanted to become a pirate as
well, and she did – one of the greatest pirates to have ever lived. Right from the get-go, Zheng Yi Sao displayed a staggering degree of
cunning. She happily accepted Zheng Yi’s proposal, but only on the
condition that he share his wealth and power with her, equally.
Then,
while her new husband went about his pirate duties – further plunder and
rum-drinking, presumably – she focused on the business side of things.
The result was that in six years, she had engineered an alliance between
Zheng Yi and his former pirate rivals, amassed a force of some 1500
ships (called the Red Flag Fleet) and created a swashbuckling empire
that extended all the way from Korea to Malaysia. Zheng Yi certainly knew how to pick ‘em.
Unfortunately, Zheng Yi was killed in 1807 after a misunderstanding
with a typhoon. Unfortunate for him, but extremely fortunate for Zheng
Yi Sao. Refusing to step aside like a good, diligent widow, Zheng Yi
Sao took charge of the Red Flag Fleet, convinced her late husband’s
First Mate to support her and swiftly set about making herself the most
respected and/or feared individual in all the East.
If films/books/video games have taught us anything, it’s that pirates
were a rowdy bunch at the best of times, and their attitudes towards
women were…less than progressive.
Zheng Yi Sao, of course, was having
none of that and quickly established a new pirate code to keep her
peg-legged men in line. Anyone who looted a town that had already paid
tribute had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone
caught, or even suspected, of stealing from the treasury had
their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone who raped a
female prisoner had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean
(there’s a pattern there somewhere).
Needless to say, Zheng Yi Sao was not messing around. Not all her
laws were quite so decapitation-happy, though. Ugly female prisoners
were to be set free, and when a crewmember purchased one of the prettier
captives, he had no choice but to marry her. But if he was unfaithful…head cut off, dumped in the ocean.
After just one year leading her pirate hegemony, Zheng Yi Sao had
formed one of the largest navies on the planet, with some 17,000 men
under her command. Extorted tributes from merchants across the Chinese
seas and from the coastal towns between Macau and Canton swelled her
treasury to staggering levels, and her power was so great that she
became the de facto government of the region. No longer was she merely a
pirate; she was an entire political entity.
Quite understandably, the reigning Qing Emperor wasn’t too thrilled
with Zheng Yi Sao’s ability to supplant his divine authority, so he
commissioned an Imperial Navy to put an end to her eye-patched
enterprises. Zheng Yi Sao won hands down. Not only did she defeat the emperor’s forces, but she captured 63 of
his ships and persuaded many of his men to join her. How did she
persuade them? They were given a choice: join her crew and enjoy the
complimentary rum, or be tied to the deck and be beaten to death. It was
(assumedly) an easy decision to make.
Over the next two years, the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) kept up its
offensive, even going so far as to hire the British and Portuguese
navies to see her off. Those two nations were the superpowers of the
time – totally unparalleled in their sea-faring prowess – and Zheng Yi
Sao crushed them both. There was literally no stopping her.
But Zheng Yi Sao didn’t let her achievements go to her head. Sick and
tired of constant defeat, in 1810 the Qing Emperor offered an amnesty
for all pirates – if Zheng Yi Sao would agree to make peace. Recognizing
that her good fortune would not last forever, Zheng Yi Sao went
willingly to the negotiations table. She showed up unannounced at the
home of the Governor-general of Canton, convinced him to treat with her
despite her gender and secured quite possibly the most generous
pension-deal ever.
Not only did she get her pardon, and a pardon for the majority of her
men, but she kept ownership of all her treasure. Docking her ship for
the last time, she promptly married her former husband’s First Mate and,
at the age of 35, retired to a life on the mainland, where she opened a
gambling den and brothel.
She ran her new, less pirate-y business for the rest of her life, and
by the time she died at the ripe old age of 69 (this was the 19th
century. 69 was seriously good) she had become not only a living legend,
but a mother and a grandmother too. No doubt she had some interesting bedtime stories to tell her kids.
Joe Doran, Illustration courtesy of Huang Shuo
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2012/06/the-greatest-pirate-who-ever-lived/
Labels:
Further Than Fiction
Friday, August 24, 2012
Subvertising
24 International artists create the
UK’s largest
subvertising campaign
We got sent a press release last week which seemed to be burning a hole in my inbox having seen it pop up on various sites in quick succession. Having had a chance to look through the release and the images that coincide with it, I’m now glad I didn’t bury this at the bottom of the pile.
Brandalism is the work of 24 International artists who have completed the world’s first collaborative ‘subvertising’ campaign on outdoor billboards across the UK. The aim of this project is to challenge the destructive impacts of the advertising industy.
Big players including Ron English, Robert Montgomery, Broken Fingaz, Know Hope and Paul Insect have all contributed their skills and art works, with the series of works installed by a guerilla team. All of this, just a fortnight before the London 2012 Olympic Games. The total of 35 anti-advertising artworks were installed in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and London.
Touching on a slew of social issues including debt, the environment, body image, consumerism, cultural values and last summer’s riots, the artworks are a response to government reports and the recent think tank reports that have opened the ethical debate regarding advertising and it’s inherent, detrimental impact on our cultural values.
One of the installers of the artworks, Robert Graysford, 27, said:
“We’ve taken over these billboards because the advertising industry takes no responsibility for the messages they force-feed us every day. They claim to give us choice but we have no choice to ‘opt out’ from these intrusions into our public and personal spaces.”
“We’re lab rats for ad execs who exploit our fears and insecurities through consumerism. I’m a human being, not a consumer. So by taking these billboards, we are taking these spaces back. If Sao Paolo in Brazil can ban all outdoor advertising, so can we”.
Here at UKSA, we agree with the guys that the strict enforcement of the branding regulations for the forthcoming Olympic Games, mainly for the commercial interest of each particular brand, led to a lot of the responsed-based artwork you see here.
Bill Posters, who subverted a famous Nike advert of Wayne Rooney clutching shopping bags with the tagline, ‘Just Loot It’ said:
“The ad industry creates pressure when they manipulate our needs and desires. Pressure to have the latest gear, clothes and phones. This pressure erupted when kids took to the streets across the country to claim what they had been told that they needed.”
All the artworks can be seen on the Brandalism website at www.brandalism.org.uk
http://www.ukstreetart.co.uk/brandalism-24-international-artists-create-the-uks-largest-subvertising-campaign (July 21, 2012)
Labels:
State of the Nation
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Eid Mubaruk From All Of Them ...
Syrian, Libyan, Roma,
Kashmiri, Hazara, Refugees in Kenya
Afghani, Palestinian, Malian, Rohingyan
As we launch into a food holocaust this weekend to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr and quickly forget the lessons that Ramadan hoped to teach us... like solidarity.
Let us spare a moment, while we sip our fancy drinks, to remember the millions who have no access to clean water and all those who cannot afford new clothes, or the 20 million who will starve to death by the end of this year in the Horn of Africa. And those who will not get a moment of silence from the gun fire and bombing and those who won't get any rest because they have to keep running for their lives.
From All of them and the many others that I have not mentioned...
Eid Mubaruk to you and yours.
Labels:
Related to Religion
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