The Pirate Queen

How one incredible woman rose from a life of poor prostitution to command a fearsome fleet that ruled the South China Sea.

- Jessica Leggett

Ching Shih is widely considered to be one of the greatest – if not the greatest – pirates of all time. Known as ‘The Terror of South China’, she commanded the infamous Red Fleet and effectively ruled the country’s coastline in the early 19th century. At her peak, China’s navy was too afraid to fight her, while merchants would simply pay her a tithe rather than risk being boarded. She commanded over 1,800 pirate ships and an estimated 80,000 men. In comparison, the infamous Blackbeard had just four ships and 300 men within the same century. Ching Shih’s incredible success is arguably all the more extraordinary as she started out working aboard a floating brothel.

The so-called ‘flower boats’ of Pearl River, which flows through the city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, acted as pleasure palaces for the rich and powerful. While they were luxuriously decorated with chandeliers and stained glass windows to attract customers, conditions were not so great for the women that lived and worked on them.

We don’t know much about Ching’s Shih early life, except that she was born around 1775 and possibly given the name Shi Xianggu. While she is popularly known today as Ching Shih, this is a Westernisation of Cheng I Sao, which literally means ‘wife of Cheng I’.

The Cheng I in question was a notorious pirate who changed Shi Xianggu’s life. How the couple met is not known for certain. According to legend, Cheng stormed the flower boats with his crew to find himself a wife. Taking the women hostage, Cheng was captivated by the beautiful Shi Xianggu and proposed to her.