Deadly Peasant. The Deadly Peasant was created by Yao Minai and appeared in the book Shandong Xiangma Zhuan (1925-6?); the book was filmed under that title in 1927. The Deadly Peasant is a peasant woman in a part of Sh?nd?ng which is plagued by a fierce bandit chief. The Deadly Peasant puts on male clothes and puts her martial arts ability to use in defeating the bandits, meanwhile becoming a part of a love triangle with a man she loves and a woman in love with the Peasant’s male persona.
One (among many) of the wuxia cross-dressing female warrior novels and films, a prolific subgenre. Which once again shows how far ahead China was compared to Hollywood in terms of gender roles in action films. Shandong Xiangma Zhuan isn’t extraordinary, it’s typical, and that’s what makes it of interest.