- "Chinese pirates were amazing. There were hundreds of Chinese pirates."
- ―David Cordingly
Chinese pirates were pirates of Chinese origin.
History[]
Piracy was known in China for centuries, but reached a peak of activity in the mid-17th century, when the Manchu conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant and pirate, and his son, Koxinga, led the fight against the invaders. Koxinga conquered the Dutch colony on Taiwan, and established the Kingdom of Tungning, from where the Ming loyalists started both military as well as piratial raids to the coasts of Mainland China.
By the mid-18th century two great organizations of Chinese pirates existed: Sao Feng's Empire, which operated out of Singapore, and the pirate confederation of China, which controlled the majority of piracy up and down the Chinese coast and in the Pacific Ocean[1], and smuggling trade between China and Japan. The confederation was led by Mistress Ching.
Culture and equipment[]
In the 18th century, Chinese pirates wore traditional Chinese clothes, sailed junks and fought mostly with traditional Chinese weapons (such as the dao, jian, quiang and gùn) as well as with fids, daggers, muskets and pistols. The junks carried cannons and swivel guns.
Notable Chinese pirates[]
Behind the scenes[]
- One of the featurettes on the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD/Blu-Ray edition is about Chinese pirates.
- The character of Mistress Ching and Sao Feng are loosely based on the historical pirates Ching Shih and Cheung Po Tsai respectively.