What is "dragon lady"

n. An East Asian woman who is stereotypically strong, deceitful, domineering or mysterious.

Dragon Lady is a phrase referring to a seductive, treacherous, domineering, and/or tyrannical woman, especially an Asian one. Women famously referred to as "Dragon Lady" include:

• Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, First Lady of South Vietnam
• Soong Mei-ling, First Lady of the Republic of China
• Devika Rani, early Indian actress

Dragon Lady can also refer to:

• Dragon Lady (film), a 1975 film
• Dragon Lady (Terry and the Pirates), a character in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates
• Lockheed U-2, an American surveillance aircraft

The Dragon Lady, also known as Madam Deal, was a well-known character in the U.S. comic strip Terry and the Pirates, created by Milton Caniff, and in the movie serial, comic books, and TV series based on the comic strip. Her real name is Lai Choi San.

The Dragon Lady first appeared in 1934 in the first Sunday strip story. She began as a stereotypically beautiful, seductive and evil Asian, but as the comic strip became more realistic, the character grew more complex. Fans of the strip recall her passionate love for Pat Ryan, and the time she taught Terry how to dance. In the years leading up to World War II, she became a heroic though Machiavellian figure leading the resistance against the Japanese invasion of China.

According to Milton Caniff: Conversations, she "was modeled from a real person, as are all Caniff's characters", in this case a succession of them, starting with professional model Phyllis Johnson.

A Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of East Asian and occasionally South Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, or mysterious. The term's origin and usage is Western, not Chinese. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna May Wong, the term comes from the female villain in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates. It has since been applied to powerful Asian women and to a number of racially Asian film actresses. The stereotype has generated a large quantity of sociological literature. "Dragon Lady" is sometimes applied to persons who lived before the term became part of American slang in the 1930s. It is also used to refer to any powerful but prickly woman, usually in a derogatory fashion.