If the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taught us anything, it is that a good team-up is the best way to juice a genre. While Liu Rushi (柳如是), Dong Xiaowan (董小宛), Li Xiangjun (李香君), and Chen Yuanyuan (陈圆圆) may not require the same level of CGI as The Avengers franchise, they are just as celebrated in Chinese literature as The Incredible Hulk is in comic books and summer blockbusters.
The sensational lives and loves of these four remarkable women—all of them courtesans living in the demimonde of the late Ming era (1368 – 1644)—have been the subject of poems, novels, plays, operas, and more than a few telenovelas. Yet, few authors have attempted to explore the internal lives of these women despite their fame.
Hong Kong-born, Vancouver-based writer Alice Poon has made something of a career filling in the emotional backstories for some of China’s most famous and misunderstood women. Her 2017 novel The Green Phoenix speculated about a love triangle at the heart of the Manchu conquest of China and the courtly intrigues of the first Qing emperors.
In her latest book, Tales of Ming Courtesans, Poon returns to the convulsions and upheavals of the 17th century Ming-Qing transition. Many of the figures who played a role in the collapse of the Ming dynasty, the Qing conquest, and the Chinese resistance to the Manchus are characters in Poon’s novel: including rebel leader Li Zicheng (李自成), turncoat general Wu Sangui (吴三桂), and loyalist Ming scholars Chen Zilong (陈子龙), Qian Qianyi (钱谦益), and Hou Fangyu (侯方域). But Tales of Ming Courtesans turns around the usual tropes, relegating the “great men” to the sidelines and centering the story around the actions and agency of the women they loved.