Tigress Tycoons

In the Year of the Dragon, Amy Chua profiles four Chinese powerhouse women who bucked tradition to get rich — very, very rich

LIKE a relentless overachiever, China is eagerly collecting superlatives. It’s the world’s fastest-growing major economy. It boasts the world’s biggest hydropower plant, shopping mall, and crocodile farm (home to 100,000 snapping beasts). It’s building the world’s largest airport (the size of Bermuda). And it now has more self-made female billionaires than any other country in the world.

This is not only because China has more females than any other nation. Many of these extraordinary women rose from nothing, despite living in a traditionally patriarchal society. They are a beguiling advertisement for the New China — bold, entrepreneurial and tradition-breaking.