Chin-Ning was introduced. She looked more like a fashionable boutique owner than a business warrior. Three decades of life in America had little effect on her accent, but it made her sound somehow both wiser and funnier when she cracked jokes at the expense of the three men in the room. To the Chinese, she explained, war is about the heart. The western way is about lining up soldiers and fighting and counting the bodies and whoever has more people standing wins.
Women like to conquer without fighting.
She talked of the bendable blade of grass being stronger than the big oak tree. She talked of letting men think they run things, when in reality they don't. And as I sat there, I couldn't help but think much of it described a way of civil warfare that Southern women have been fighting since long before 1861. Halfway through her speech, she abruptly ordered the women to get up and dance. Music blared, and they rushed the stage.