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English author Arthur Ransome wrote a series of books named Swallows and Amazons. These were set in the 1930s and were about a group of children having fun sailing dinghies in the English Lake Country, but one of the books has them going on a sailing adventure around the world. They are forced to abandon ship off the coast of Guangdong after an accident involving a pet monkey, a petrol tank and a lighted cigarette, and they fall into the clutches of a female pirate named Missee Lee. According to the Wikipedia article, her character is partly based on Soong Ching-Ling.

I know a person who plans to name a junk-rigged vessel Missee Lee. This will be fine in English as it's an intriguing name with a Chinese flavour, and those in the know will recognize it, but if this is back-translated into 李小姐 then I feel it might be a bit 莫名其妙. It will be puzzling and confusing and might not make sense as a vessel name.

Is there an alternative Chinese title that a female pirate or bandit might have used, which could be paired with 李 and would suggest a bold and adventurous 女侠 type character or personality?

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  • The Genres of this book - Fiction; Children; Adventure; China; Fantasy... I don't know how could the author link the fictional character Missy Lee to Soong Ching-Ling (宋慶齡 - widow of the forefather of modern China, Sun Yat-sen, and a high-ranking political figure in Communist China). Other than that she was an influential Chinese female, I don't see any similarities between the two.
    – r13
    Commented Aug 19 at 18:21
  • Apparently he met Soong Ching-Ling and she made an impression on him as a strong character, beyond that I don't think there is any connection. Commented Aug 20 at 0:13
  • China had no historical tradition of personifying water borne vessels with human elements, masculine or feminine. Now China has adopted the US tradition of naming their naval vessels after places, but not after prominent national figures as in the US, (what if an aircraft carrier named Chairman Mao got sunk?) "Missee Lee" may sound cute, but "missee", as a transitive verb means, "to see wrongly / to take a wrong view of" In any case "missee", in the past was how the British colonialist made fun of the old Cantonese speakers' inability to pronouns "Miss", thus nurses were called "Missee" Commented Aug 20 at 2:29
  • @WayneCheah If it was just Miss Lee it would lose the character association. Maybe it's not such a great name after all then. Commented Aug 20 at 2:57
  • These days, all that matters is how "cool" a thing is. This brings to mind Cassius Clay who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after conversion to Islam because Cassius Clay was a slave name. During the dark days of slavery, all slaves were named or renamed according to who their masters were. So, we still see many African-Americans having English / European surnames of the slave masters. So, nobody cares, or complains, if a boat is named "Missee Lee" Here's a joke. The Americans wanted General Moshe Dayan in its army. Israel says OK provided Israel gets General Motors in exchange. Commented Aug 20 at 3:56

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李莫愁 = 武侠小说角色(Wuxia novel character)

李莫愁出自《神雕侠侣》- by Jin Yong(金庸),杨过的师伯,小龙女的师姐。为人凶狠毒辣,江湖人称赤练仙子,年轻的时候爱慕陆展元,不得之后性情大变。但良心未泯,曾抚养过郭襄,最后葬身于大火之中,临死也不忘旧爱。

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  • "李莫愁"是一个反派叛徒, 不分是非, 无情无义, 滥杀无辜的人物; 也死于火海之中. 那不是一个坏预兆? Commented Aug 20 at 3:19
  • The story of that English writer was set in 1930s, when Louis Cha 查良鏞 was still kept in the mainland China and had no idea of writing a story that contained a heroine named so. Commented Aug 20 at 9:05
  • @WayneCheah That's the best I can come up with for a female bandit named Lee. :)
    – r13
    Commented Aug 20 at 13:16

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