Writing Pirates is unique in that it draws from Asian literary sources to position Asian piracy and Chinese diaspora communities as alternatives to imperial corruption. While most recent studies have addressed piracy as it relates to historical rebellion and terrorism, as a continuum of threats to land-based societies, Wang instead approaches positive focal era regional piracy as a form of agency challenging political corruption.

This is a promising and exciting book. Wang gives a solid and convincing portrayal of how Ming subjects, not just elites but also merchants and a wider segment of early modern Chinese society, saw themselves in relation to their empire, the tributary system, and the world beyond. She highlights the crucial role played by fiction writing on foreign adventures, marginal social figures such as pirates, and translation and transcription.

Writing Pirates is a thought-provoking and challenging book that makes a significant contribution to the fields of Chinese literature and history.

...by drawing rich connections between fiction and a wide variety of other writings, Writing Pirates casts new light on the genre and the broader discourse of pirates" running through it. It fuses historiography and the imagination of the other, opening the door for a range of further inquiries for scholars of late Ming literature and comparative early modernities alike."

Writing Pirates is a bountiful and valuable treasure for any academic library where literature and piracy are popular fields of study. . .

Reads do not need a background in Chinese history and literature to appreciate this study. Its major contribution might be in pushing scholars more familiar with maritime violence in other seas to break out of Eurocentric frameworks for thinking about early modern maritime imaginaries and the conquest of the sea.