Dragon Lady
The expression Dragon Lady ( English for " Dragon Lady") describes a cultural stereotype widespread especially in the USA , which characterizes certain East Asian women, especially Chinese women, as seductive and desirable, but also not trustworthy.
A peculiarity of the stereotype of the Dragon Lady , which distinguishes it from that of the femme fatale or the vamp, is that today it coincides with the prejudice that Far Eastern women - in contrast to Western women - are passive, cuddly and obedient (see also : China Doll ). The male victim is thus deceived all the more drastically and with more severe traumatic consequences.
In Germany this stereotype is known from films like James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice and Tomorrow Never Dies . However, it has been widely used in US films since the 1920s, especially in the films with Anna May Wong , who played a typical dragon lady as the daughter of the super criminal Fu Manchu in the 1931 film "Daughter of a Dragon" . In the action genre (e.g. Kill Bill or the comic book version Sin City ) the stereotype persists to the present day. In modern films, the Dragon Lady - which was previously reserved for male figures - also uses the techniques of Far Eastern martial arts.
In most cases, the Dragon Lady dies in the course of the film's plot.
Cultural background
The stereotype of the Dragon Lady is to be interpreted largely against the background of racism in the USA , in particular the anti-Chinese racism that arose in the USA with the beginning of Chinese immigration in California ( gold rush of 1848 ) and in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act was even written into law. American immigration laws - especially the Page Law passed in California on March 3, 1875 - made it difficult for Chinese immigrants to join their wives until well into the 20th century, because Chinese applicants were generally assumed that the purpose of their entry into the United States was themselves to prostitute there .
Trivia
Nancy Reagan's nickname was Dragon Lady .
The US Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft is nicknamed the Dragon Lady .
literature
- Sheridan Prasso: The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient . Public Affairs, New York 2005, ISBN 978-1-58648-394-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian D. Behnken, Gregory D. Smithers: Racism in American Popular Media. From Aunt Jemima to the Frito Bandido . Praeger, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-1-4408-2976-5 , pp. 64 ( limited preview in Google Book search). ; Sterotypes: Dragon Lady or Docile . In: Mary Yu Danico, Anthony C. Ocampo (Eds.): Asian American Society. To Encyclopedia. Volume 1 . Sage, Los Angeles et al. a. 2014, ISBN 978-1-4522-8190-2 , pp. 860 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Nancy Reagan made a president