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Zheng Yi Sao: The most successful pirate in history

If you were asked to picture the most successful pirate of all time, who would you imagine? Perhaps Long John Silver complete with a perching parrot, or a swashbuckling Blackbeard? Think again! Zheng Yi Sao - a former sex worker turned Pirate Queen who terrorised the South China Sea in the 19th Century - blows them both out of the water.

Script by Emma Nagouse, University of Sheffield, based on original research by Prof Ronald C. Po, The London School of Economics

Animation by Peter Caires

Narration by Tessa Delaunay-Martin

Find out more by downloading the You’re Dead To Me podcast.

 


Zheng Yi Sao: The most successful pirate in history