Yang-Yoshiko (Tiger Blues)

The Yang-Yoshiko Universe
Alt-history
Steampunk
Dieselpunk
Arcanepunk

Yang and Yoshiko are my dynamic duo of crossdressing, possibly genderqueer, possibly trans, definitely gritty antiheroes, based upon the real historical queer pioneers Olive Yang (1927-2017), and Kawashima Yoshiko (1907-1948). Olive Yang (born Yang Kyin Hsiu, also known by the aliases Miss Hairy Legs, Two-Gun Mulan), a nobleman’s daughter from Burma’s Kokang region, founded a drug empire in the Golden Triangle, spied for the CIA, ran afoul of various cartel networks and the Burmese state, served multiple stints in prison, and dated the hottest actresses in Burma. Kawashima Yoshiko (born Aisin-Gioro Xianyu, also known by the male name Ryōsuke, and the alias Eastern Jewel), a Manchurian princess, was caught up in Japanese ultranationalist schemes, spied and honeypotted for Japanese military intelligence, commanded troops in battle while dressed in men’s fatigues, and may have been tied in with the Black Dragon Society. Officially, Yoshiko was executed in 1948, aged forty, though rumours of their death being faked persisted. In my world, the Dragons were responsible for the faked execution, Yoshiko befriended Olive shortly thereafter, and went on to become Olive’s closest confidante, and consigliere.

In the ninth century, renowned Buddhist guru Padmasambhava is said to have ridden a winged tiger to a treacherous cliffside cave, ten thousand feet above sea level, in the Paro Valley of Bhutan. There, he reached the pinnacle of Enlightenment, and left behind a legendary amulet with the power of the gods. This talisman is known to history as the Tiger’s Penis.

1948: Chiang Kai-Shek’s forces are on the run. Chairman Mao is wrapping his commie fingers around all of China, and his partisans have heard rumours of the fabled Tiger’s Penis, with the power to control and break the minds of men, having been unearthed in the Himalayan peaks. Chiang doesn’t have the forces to snatch this idol up and keep it from the communists. It comes down to one plucky crew of mercenaries to venture high into the mountains and find this mythical amulet...

Olive Yang was born a Burmese noblewoman. Kawashima Yoshiko was born a Manchurian princess. Now Olive is a gun-runner and smuggler, fresh off a breakup and looking for solace at the bottom of a bottle. Yoshiko is a Japanese war criminal and fugitive having paid off the executioner to fake the hanging. Both are strident and audacious, kicking ass and taking names – Olive with a laser-dagger bolted to a prosthetic arm and Yoshiko with a résumé of seducing and honeypotting targets on behalf of Japanese spymaster handlers. And both reject the genders expected of them, crossdressing and living Bohemian lifestyles with a retinue of girlfriends they each sometimes call their ‘wives’. Down on their luck and stuck in the mountain city of Kunming, they're offered a paying job from one of Chiang's loyalists looking to prevent communist disaster...

Olive Yang

-born to a chieftain of an ethnic minority on the China-Burma border.
-fled an arranged marriage after discovering they were pregnant
-got caught up with nationalist Chinese forces fleeing after the Chinese Civil War, hoping to retake Yunnan. This whole venture was rife with corruption, The CIA was involved. The Nationalist Chinese were forced to pay for off-the-books weapons caches with the only product they had, opium. Olive was involved as a militiaman and smuggler
-did 2 stints in prison
-stole their brother's girlfriends, dated A-list actresses, cadded around with cabaret dancers
-pioneered drug smuggling in the Golden Triangle
-mediated a ceasefire between the Burmese government and rebel group in 1989
-died in 2017, aged 90
-requested to be called "uncle" as an honourific. Neither Mandarin nor Burmese makes a gender distinction between third-person pronouns. A grand-niece once said of them “I guess you could say she was trans, but we didn’t really talk about it when she was living with us. Everybody just accepted it, and let Uncle Olive be.”

Kawashima Yoshiko

-born a princess of China's last imperial dynasty
-adopted out to a Japanese ultranationalist at the age of 7, grew up in Japan
-married to a Mongolian independence nobleman at the age of 20, claimed the marriage was never consummated, left the marriage after 3 years
-conducted spying activities for the Japanese in Shanghai, while also living a party lifestyle, rising at noon and going to nightclubs most nights
-dated prominent Japanese military leaders, including Tanaka Ryukichi and Tada Hayao, both of whom later debated having them assassinated.
-was associated with General Kenji Doihara, "dirty tricks" spymaster in Manchukuo, receiving large sums of cash from him, the usage of which he could not account for.
-took one of their secretaries as a wife, introducing her as such and posing for wedding photos. Also later dated future actress Yamaguchi Yoshiko
-was appointed commander of 3000 troops in occupied Manchukuo to suppress banditry. While they were shot 3 times on this assignment, this was more of a Japanese propaganda piece than an actual military commission

-spent time with Japanese author Muramatsu Shofu, who wrote a pulp novel based on their life, titled "The Beauty in Men's Clothing". While researching the book, Muramatsu used male pronouns when discussing Yoshiko-owned a hotpot restaurant in Tianjin which may have been a front for spying purposes. Yoshiko was attacked by axe-wielding resistance fighters one evening who were targeting a traitor in their midst, who Yoshiko was seeing that evening as a friend. The friend died, while Yoshiko spent time in hospital recovering, at which time the restaurant had been shuttered.-following the war, they relocated to Beijing, where they were arrested as a traitor to China-executed by the nationalist Chinese in1948, aged 40-possible ties to the Black Dragon Society, the ultranationalist, paramilitary secret society which was, in many ways, the spearpoint of Japanese fascism. If true, this would neatly explain their adoption, wedding, many of their spying activities, association with Kenji Doihara, near-assassinations by Tanaka and Tada, and connection to the victim of the axe attack in Tianjin. This remains unsubstantiated.-at age sixteen, shaved a buzzcut, began dressing as a man, and is quoted by Japanese newspapers as saying, “I was born with what the doctors call a tendency toward the third sex, and so I cannot pursue an ordinary woman’s goals in life. People criticize me and say that I am perverted, and maybe they’re right. I just can’t behave like an ordinary feminine woman.”

The Yang-Yoshiko Universe Alt-history Steampunk Dieselpunk Arcanepunk

The Yang-Yoshiko Universe
Alt-history
Steampunk
Dieselpunk
Arcanepunk