Didja Notice?

 

The Serpent Lady may be inspired by the Asian character of the Dragon Lady in Milton Caniff's 1934-1973 comic strip Terry and the Pirates, who was herself based on a certain stereotype of Asian women as alluring, deceitful, domineering, and mysterious. 

 

Riding with the heroic/thieving Serpent Lady, Sophie reminds Indy that he once rode with Pancho Villa, a hero to some, bandit to others. This was seen in "Spring Break Adventure". In fact, the image seen here on page 4 of teen Indy riding with the famous Mexican bandit is borrowed from the cover of the comic book adaptation of that episode, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles #2, also written and drawn by Dan Barry. Pancho Villa (1878-1923) is a national hero in Mexico and an instigator of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 (alongside Emiliano Zapata, Porfirio Diaz, and Pascual Orozco).

 

    The Serpent Lady tells Indy she fights against Chaing Kai-shek and Indy is surprised, thinking that Kai-shek was a symbol of national unity in China, carrying on the work of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Chiang Kai Shek was the revolutionary leader of the Republic of China from 1928-1949 until his government was overthrown by the Chinese Communist Party. Dr. Sun Yat-sen was elected to lead China as President after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, with the American media even calling him the "George Washington of China" when he was first elected.

    The Serpent Lady goes on to argue that General Chaing Kai-shek unites China only through his political party (Kuomintang) under his dictatorship. A one-sided, but not entirely untrue view of the rule of Kai-shek.

 

On page 10, Indy says he had the best arm in Ivy League baseball. Indy has been a big fan of professional baseball since he was a boy. The Ivy League is a system of private universities in the northeastern United States, generally considered to be elite and selective in admissions. Indy's comment would tend to suggest his university education came at one or more Ivy League schools, but according to his chronicled history, he did not attend an Ivy League school. He has taught at the Ivy League schools of Princeton University and (fictitious) Barnett College. Possibly, his reputation of the "best arm" is from a faculty team from Princeton and/or Barnett.

 

General Kyojo determines that Indy's expedition is heading east towards Hankow and Nanking and tells his radio man to contact Kwantung Command in Manchukuo. Hankow was a Chinese town that existed in Hubei Province from 1921-1954, when it was merged with the neighboring towns of Wuchang and Hanyang to form the city of Wuhan, which became the capital of the province. Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu Province. "Kwantung Command" refers to the Kwantung Army, a security force for the Kwantung Leased Territory and South Manchurian Railway Zone after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Manchukuo was a Japanese puppet-state in Manchuria from 1932-1945.

 

The background map on pages 15 and 16 shows Indy's expedition passing through Kanting and Chengtu, with Chengtu being the capital of Szechuan Province.

 

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