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The press called her a “two-pistol-packing” grandma. She witnessed and participated in the chaos of warlord China, World War II, and the CCP-KMT civil war. For a time, she was a criminal. Later she became a household name for her bravery in fighting the Japanese and then the Communists, resisting right up to the evacuation of Dachen Islands in 1955. Huang Bamei died in Taipei in 1982 (age 76) after devoting the last decades of her long and action-packed life to caring for children orphaned by the Chinese Civil War; an amazing life that, quite honestly John and Eryk would rather talk about than have lived through.
All pics via Wikimedia Commons
"At the height of Huang Bamei's power, she reportedly commanded a force of 50,000 people and 70 ships, and was considered the most famous pirate in China. Huang was reportedly strong from an early age. She had started practicing with guns as early as at the age of twelve and had mastered using two guns simultaneously at the age of fifteen."
Cover left: Huang Bamei as a young woman - date unknown. Huang was born in 1906.
Cover right: Huang Bamei in 1938. Wiki: "After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Huang was among the local gang leaders recruited by the National Revolutionary Army to conduct guerrilla warfare"
There are many unsubstantiated stories about Huang, including: sexual affairs with influential figures she was in known to have been in contact with, such as Shi Lianyuan, a salt merchant in Pinghu, and Xu Ashu, leader of the local Lake Tai gang.
Below: Article on pirate Huang Bamei published in Shen Bao in 1933, condemning her pirate attacks and including the earliest known published photograph of her. The newspaper Shen Bao published a report vilifying Huang on 3 August 1933, writing of her "extraordinary arm power" and that she was "abnormally atrocious." After being captured in 1933, Huang had been found guilty of a series of serious offenses and sentenced to death, but she was soon released from prison through the aid of the district police director Shen Menglian, brother-in-law to a man named Li Tianmin, who had been contacted by Huang's mother.
READ: The Battle of Dachen Archipelago - the battle between the ROC and the CCP for control of the islands.
Below: Two pages of a Chinese (ROC) 1945 propaganda article on Huang Bamei, depicting her in a military uniform and in other situations.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
