Zhang

Empress Zhang was the second wife of Emperor Suzong during China’s Tang Dynasty. Through intrigue and plotting, she gained significant power during his reign, thanks in part to her alliance with a eunuch named Li Fuguo. Emperor Suzong elevated her to the status of empress in spring 758. Eventually she and Li Fuguo turned against each other late in the emperor’s reign, as he grew gravely ill. Zhang tried to have Li Fuguo put to death, but instead was captured and killed by her former ally and was posthumously demoted to commoner rank by Emperor Daizong, the stepson whom she had tried to depose as heir and also tried to have killed before he could take the throne.

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Pritilata Waddedar

Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential in the Indian independence movement.She graduated from Bethune College in Kolkata with a degree in philosophy with distinction and became a teacher.
Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen and is known for leading 15 revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person was killed and 11 injured. The revolutionaries set the club on fire and were later caught by British police. To avoid arrest, Pritilata committed suicide by cyanide poisoning.

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Begum Samru

Joanna Nobilis Sombre began her career as a Nautch (dancing) girl in 1700s India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a small principality near Meerut.

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Ching Shih

Considered by many to be the most successful pirate in history, Ching Shih led the Red Flag Fleet of 80,000 pirates and more than 1,800 ships, ruled the Chinese seas for two decades, and managed to retire happily – after extorting a very agreeable pension from the Chinese government.
After working as a prostitute in her early life, Ching Shih married into a pirate family in 1801, becoming an equal partner to her husband, Zheng Yi. Together, they built a massive coalition by unifying small groups of pirates into a federation of 70,000 pirates and 400 junk ships, and by 1804, they led one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China. After her husband died in 1807, Ching Shih navigated the politics of such a large force to become sole leader, and by 1809, she commanded over 800 large junks and 1,000 smaller ships. The fleet dominated the coast from Macau to Canton; it is reported that in the coastal Sanshan village, they beheaded 80 men and abducted the women and children and held them for ransom until they were sold in slavery.
The code of laws in the Red Flag Fleet was merciless. Insubordination was punished by immediate beheading. Withholding any goods taken held a severe whipping for a first-time offence, with the death penalty for large amounts, and no stealing was tolerated from either the public fund or villagers who supplied the pirates. Ching Shih’s code had unusual rules for female captives. In general, the pirates made their most beautiful captives their concubines or wives, and if a pirate took a wife he had to be faithful to her. Those deemed unattractive were released and any others were ransomed. Pirates who raped female captives were put to death and if pirates had consensual sex with captives, the pirate was beheaded and the woman he was with had cannonballs attached to her legs and was thrown over the side of the boat. Other violations of different parts of the code were punishable by flogging, clapping in irons, or quartering. Deserters or those who had left without official permission had their ears chopped off and were then paraded around their squadron.
In January 1808, the Chinese government tried to destroy her fleet in a series of fierce battles, but after defeats in which Ching Shih captured and comandeered several of their ships, the government had to revert to using fishing vessels for battle. At the same time, Ching Shih faced a bigger threat from other pirate fleets, including O-po-tae, a former ally who began working with the Qing government. The government also hired European bounty hunters, who were also defeated. She also challenged European power when she captured the East India Company merchantman The Marquis of Ely in 1809.
In September and November 1809, the fleet suffered a series of defeats from the Portuguese Navy at the Battle of the Tiger’s Mouth. In their final battle at Chek Lap Kok in 1810, Ching Shih surrendered to the Portuguese Navy on 21 January. The amnesty agreement the fleet accepted from the Qing Imperial government applied to all pirates who agreed to surrender, ending their career and allowed to keep the loot. It meant that only 60 pirates were banished, 151 exiled, and only 126 put to death out of her whole fleet of 17,318 pirates. The remaining pirates only had to surrender their weapons.
Ching Shih negotiated for Cheung Po, her second husband and second-in-command, to retain several ships, including approximately 120 to be used for employment on the salt trade. She also arranged for many of her pirates in the fleets to be given positions in the Chinese bureaucracy; Cheung Po became a captain in the Qing’s Guangdong navy. Ching Shih was also able to secure official government recognition her as Cheung Po’s wife, despite the restrictions against widows remarrying.
After Cheung Po died at sea in 1822, Ching Shih moved with their children to Macau and opened a gambling house; she was also involved in the salt trade there. In her 60s, she served as an advisor to head of state Lin Zexu during the First Opium War (1839-1842). In 1844, she died in bed surrounded by her family in Macau, at the age of 69.

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Ann Hui

Ann Hui On-wah, BBS MBE is a Hong Kong film director, producer, screenwriter and actress and one of the Hong Kong New Wave’s most critically acclaimed filmmakers.

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Shima

Known as a just and wise ruler, Shima was the queen regnant of the 7th-century kingdom of Kalingga on the northern coast of Central Java circa 674 CE.

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Yu Gwansun

An important figure in organising the March 1st Movement against the Japanese colonial rule in Korea, Yu Gwansun became a symbol of her country’s fight for independence through peaceful protest.

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Kartini

Kartini was an Indonesian national hero, a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s rights for Indonesians.

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