In her heroic guise, Jade Dragon is a slim, lithe young woman of Chinese ancestry wearing resplendent Mandarin robes.  Her skin seems to shine radiantly, almost golden. On the insides of her forearms, she has coiled jade dragons brands that seem to shine with an inner green light.

In her civilian identity, Evelyn Zang is a highly Americanized Chinese-American girl with a pale complexion and colored hair.  She tends to be fashion-forward and wears trendy outfits. Her dragon brands are not visible.



Qui-Lin Xiang was born to a family of Chinese immigrants and grew up in Victory City's Chinatown.  She was the middle child; her older brother, Ki, was the respectful, hard-working elder brother.  Her younger brother, Li, was the pampered baby.  Qui-Lin was the rebellious middle child, oft-overlooked, who wanted to be American and enjoy all the liberties of the country she was born into.  Their family ran a Chinese antique store with an elder uncle, and she grew up around the shop; the apartments above it were their home.

Qui-Lin (who by the time she was a young teen went by the more American-sounding Evelyn Zang) ran rather wild, with her two brothers getting the lion's share of the attention, and ignored much of her duties and culture to become rather Americanized.  Her father was away much when she was young, and her mother didn't know what to do with her.  Only her uncle really had much sway with her, and he seemed often... distracted, even when not running the ship.  Unbeknownst to Evelyn, her uncle was in fact a sorcerer in the ancient Chinese tradition, although he was no longer the magician he once was.  Involvements with a friend, a certain Mr. Chi, kept her uncle occupied.  And he saw no reason to tell 'Evelyn' of their family legacy.  The Jade Dragon Brands would be passed to the elder Xiang, Ki, upon his 21st birthday.  Qui-Lin was never in line for them.

Until a train wreck the day of Ki's 21st birthday took both Evelyn's father and older brother from this world.

Her uncle, Wu Fan, suspected that the wreck was no mere coincidence.  But he had little time to act, and no proof.  Xiang Li was too young, merely 9, to accept the legacy.  And so it fell to the wild, Americanized Evelyn.  Wu Fan had no time to explain and merely demanded Evelyn's obedience.  Unused to such steel in her kindly uncle, she complied, and found herself involved in a mystic Chinese ceremony to transfer the brands from her father's body to her own.