SPEAKER_06: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, can I let you in on a little secret? Ugh, I'm obsessed with the Drop app. Drop makes it so easy to score free gift cards just for doing my everyday shopping at places like Ulta, Sam's Club, and Lyft. So if you're like me and love a good shopping spree, download Drop today and join the secret club of savvy shoppers. And use my code, getdrop999, to get $5.
SPEAKER_00: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. This month we're talking about folk heroes, people whose lives and stories took on mythic proportion. Today we'll learn about a resourceful woman who lived by sea, chased down pirates, and played a key role in shaping Hong Kong. Let's talk about Ng A Qu. Ng was born in 1820 in Guangzhou, a Chinese seaside province northwest of Hong Kong. Ng was Tungka, a small ethnic group of people who traditionally lived on Chinese sailing ships called junks, or on the southern coasts. Ng worked at an anchorage in Guangzhou, where boat people provided water, food, clean laundry, and other services to visiting ships, including ones from the west. It's said that that's how she met the American captain James Bridges Endicott. Ng became a protected woman. Protected women were paid by elite Western men for a long-term sexual relationship while they were away from home. The women were called protected because if they were suspected of prostitution, they could show authorities they were supported by a foreign man with a certificate as proof. This arrangement gave the women elevated status, material stability, and independence within their patriarchal society. While these relationships were common knowledge, they were still looked down upon. James bought Ng a house in Central, a district of Hong Kong. She began work as a trader, and then the couple went into business together, and their discreet relationship became very public. In 1848, a typhoon destroyed a British ship. James purchased the ship's damaged opium, and Ng bought eight chests of it from him. She sent these chests to a nearby island to be sold, but along the way, the ship was attacked by pirates who seized the opium. Ng refused to accept the loss. As a boatwoman, she knew the ways of these pirates. She tracked them down and demanded compensation. Eventually, Ng was found miles away with several junks worth of contraband that the pirates had given her, including cotton, sugar, pepper, rice, and oilfish. Though Ng was investigated for the contraband, the case was eventually buried, but the news story, which focused on Ng's and James' relationship, blew up. The English newspapers called the scandal the Cum Sing Moon affair, and Ng a shrewd, intelligent woman. A couple years later, in 1852, James married a woman from England. It was, according to convention then, a more respectable decision, one that likely got its push from the press around his relationship with Ng. Ng and James separated, split custody of their five children, and James left Ng some land and a trust. Ng invested in her future, in business and property. She built housing and sold off some units to other protected women who could afford to live independently. She developed a community center for the protected women and became a leader in the community. Her work was influential in the development of the neighborhood that would become known as Middle Bazaar, where both locals and Westerners lived and spent time. Ng was a key figure in the development of old Hong Kong. Now, the buildings where she lived and created space for other protected women are ruins, broken down by time. Historians are trying to conserve these buildings and the mark that these protected women made on the city. Records show that in 1878, Ng sold off many of her belongings, suggesting bankruptcy. In 1914, the ownership of her property reverted back to someone in James Endicott's family, which might suggest that that was the year of her death. She would have been in her 90s. Beyond these clues, no one knows for sure what became of Ng. All month, we're talking about folk heroes. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.
SPEAKER_02: See you next time.
SPEAKER_05: at debella.us for your free, no obligation quote. It's easy, there's no payments until 2024 on approved credit. Over 15,000 satisfied customers on Google had a five-star experience with Dibella. For your home improvement projects, check out the award-winning pros at iHeart.dibella.us, where quality begins at home.
SPEAKER_07: Ah, the flavors of fall. And yes, of course, we mean pumpkin spice. At New Seasons Market, you'll find that and so much more, like freshly foraged local mushrooms, crisp organic apples from the gorge, sustainably harvested coho from the coast, all this deliciousness coming straight to you from the best growers, fishers, ranchers, and makers in the whole Pacific Northwest. Celebrate fall with us at New Seasons, where eating good is doing good. Find out more at newseasonsmarket.com. You see ultra-fast charger.
SPEAKER_04: Check out Hyundai at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas, as their all-star IONIQ lineup hits the stage like you've never seen before. It's your journey.
