Lai Choi San was reported to be a female pirate commanding a fleet of junks in the South China Sea during the 1920s-1930s, described in journalist Aleko Lilius’s 1931 book I Sailed with Chinese Pirates. Because Lilius was a source of questionable reliability with a history of fraud allegations, and no independent corroboration of her exists, historians consider her story unverified and possibly embellished or fabricated.
Quick Facts
| Aliases | Lai Choi San (Mountain of Wealth) |
|---|---|
| Born | unknown |
| Died | unknown |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Years Active | 1920s-1930s (disputed) |
| Fate | Disputed; one wartime report claims she went down with her fleet after a Sino-Japanese War naval action, while another source claims she was captured and imprisoned in 1939; her existence itself is questioned by historians |
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