China White
51 years ago - Chien Na Wei is born in Macau to a doctor working for the Azure Court Triad.
44 years ago - 7-year-old Na Wei's parents are killed by a Triad lieutenant, who takes her in as a ward. She begins training as an assassin.
35 years ago - 16-year-old Na Wei kills her parents murderer, claiming his role in the Triad, divesting all of his interests and focusing entirely on opium production and trafficking.
27 years ago - 24-year-old Na Wei negotiates drug trafficking markets through Star City, becoming a single figurehead in the city all the criminal organizations answer to. She begins opening abandoned drug production facilities on islands across the Pacific to meet production demands.
22 years ago - 29-year-old Na Wei oversees the reopening of one of her drug production facilities on an unnamed island. She has her lieutenants handle an unknown shipwreck survivor giving them trouble.
20 years ago - 31-year-old Na Wei is informed that her island drug production has been completely shut down, the workers overthrowing her people. She writes off the island, carpet bombing the facility.
18 years ago - 33-year-old Na Wei, after losing several of her contacts in Star City to the new vigilante Green Arrow, negotiates a new market with William Tockman, using Danny Brickwell’s organization for distribution.
15 years ago - 36-year-old Na Wei personally handles delivery of one of the single largest drug shipments in Triad history through the Star City ports, which is stopped by Green Arrow. She meets with new potential financier Oliver Queen on her private island, only for him to overcome her security and take her into custody, revealing that he is Green Arrow. She is held in Slabside Prison in Star City while her federal extradition is processed.
14 years ago - 37-year-old Na Wei's federal extradition is disrupted by Malcolm Merlyn, who was hired by William Tockman to kill her. Oliver Queen takes custody of her and tries to get her to her extradition alive, but she is killed by Merlyn.
China White is a nickname given by Oliver Queen to a villain of Asian descent, which does strike me as being just a little racist? I gave some real thought to just referring to her by her given name, but clearly that name was created just to evoke the name China White in the first place. I'm going to go ahead and use the nickname she's given in the comics, since it doesn't actually appear in the timeline, but please let me know if you think we shouldn't.
That said... Na Wei has a very particular role to play in the story of Oliver Queen. She came about to tell a very particular story and we are absolutely adapting it, but we also found quite a bit more to be done with her, making her a vital part of the early story of Green Arrow.
That said... Na Wei has a very particular role to play in the story of Oliver Queen. She came about to tell a very particular story and we are absolutely adapting it, but we also found quite a bit more to be done with her, making her a vital part of the early story of Green Arrow.
Chien Na Wei's Comic HistoryNa Wei first appeared in the 2009 miniseries Green Arrow: Year One by Andy Diggle. It's a reimagining of the time Oliver Queen spent stranded on a desert island, turning it into a really well-conceived and executed action movie of a story that also establishes the change he undergoes that leads to him one day becoming Green Arrow. They imagine the island as the domain of a ruthless drug trafficker who uses the native population as slave labor. Ollie is certainly a catalyst for change, but it's really the captive native population that overthrows her empire.
There were a few flashback appearances of Na Wei in various places when they referred back to Ollie's origin, but it wasn't until 2012 that she started to appear in anything new, specifically because of the CW show Arrow. Na Wei was a featured villain in the first season of the show, played by the inimitable Kelly Hu, and would continue to make appearances on the show in flashback for the better part of the next decade. This firmly established the character as part of Green Arrows extended rogues gallery, so later on when DC was scrambling to reestablish a coherent continuity after poking itself in the eyeball with the New 52, you would regularly see her referenced in series like New Super-Man, Nightwing, and Detective Comics. |
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Our Chien Na Wei StoryWe are absolutely adapting Oliver's adventure from his Year One story to our timeline, but making it much longer, having him spend several years on the island both before and after it is re-occupied by drug manufacturers in the employ of Na Wei. She's going to make an appearance on the island, but for the most part not be there, because there's actually quite a bit we can do with her once that story is completed.
Involving her as one of Oliver's earliest recurring villains establishes really early on that Oliver has a particular focus on drugs and drug trafficking. This pays off for us in a huge way when he eventually confronts Roy's drug use, but influences his whole career. We also get to use Na Wei as the earliest organized crime kingpin on Star City, establishing a pattern that can later be exploited by other organized crime leaders like Brick and the Clock King. We also used her for one major story that we're really excited about. In Oliver's ongoing archery duels with Malcolm Merlyn, we wanted them to have a running duel across the city as Oliver tries to keep Na Wei alive, getting her to her extradition. It evokes the classic western 3:10 to Yuma or action movies like 16 Blocks. Na Wei brings all kinds of cool adventurous utility to our Green Arrow story. No matter what name we use. |
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