The Taiping Princess

Andalusada isn't just a story, isn't just an alt-history: it's a verse, designed for a GURPS game. And because of that, I've had a certain number of characters - some named, some simply archetypes - bouncing around in my head for a long time now. Today I'm going to start sketching a few of them up...

Inside the cities of many New World cities lies an unknown area, demarcated by paifong. On one side of the paifong is the rest of the city; on the other, a micro-nation as sovereign and distinct as the Vatican City. It is cramped, crowded, confined - but to the world outside, it is perilously, barely, contained. The city's law enforcement can enforce no laws there, because even Chinese immigrants find it foreign; their policy is to do as little as possible, and when they must to do it through the only certain authority they can recognize: that Chinatown's very own Taiping Princess.

The Taiping Princess is, in keeping with the visual pun, flat-chested and tightly bound. Also in keeping with Taiping style, she has a hime cut that hangs down to her ass; depending on the day she may wear it up in oxtails, or down in a very thick braid, with things woven into it to look distinctive. Don't expect her costume to obey Chinese sartorial laws; even if the authors are aware of them, the Taiping Princess is the law in her little domain, and usually has a taste for outlandish outfits. (This is Truth in Television; the Taiping Princess's inspirations often did dress above their station.)

No matter what, a Taiping Princess brings two things with her. The first is a supporting cast:

• Two bodyguards. There are usually more, but only two of them ever get any attention. Under no circumstances will they actually protect her; she can do that better. When the bodyguards manage to survive, they may form a Greek chorus of sorts, becoming Those Two Guys or (if the Taiping Princess acknowledges them) the solitary voice of reason in Chinatown.
• Optionally a stay-at-home husband, who will be subjected to an extraordinary amount of sexist treatment for transgressing the gender assumptions of the author and/or audience.

The other thing a Taiping Princess never leaves home without is an arsenal, because where a Taiping Princess shows up, violence will follow. At the very least, obviously, there will be a pastor's sword, accompanied by some Cool Guns. Maybe she'll carry a skopetschka buried under its own chinoiserie; if not, a pair of Chinese six-guns for purely ornamental (and Orientalist) reasons. Don't be surprised if a bunch of implausible martial arts weapons come up too - or if the Taiping Princess is a seasoned unarmed fighter as well.

Characterization of the Taiping Princess

The Taiping Princess is a caricature of an extrovert: bottomlessly energetic and, more than that, loud. The volume is a function of the fact that, for a princess, she's relying much more on charismatic than traditional authority.

• This is actually true. Most Chinatowns were established while Imperial China was disintegrating, and are at best ambivalent about the new regime; the Taiping Princess isn't just an ambassador to the West, but a missionary to the unsaved Chinese abroad.
• Which is why Chinatown tends to get messy after a Taiping Princess moves in.

Underlying this quirkiness is always a checkered past, because if the Taiping Princess was a proper lady she'd unbind her tits, get married and never have left China in the first place. Whether this gets explored depends on the seriousness of the work.