Dragons – as befits a mythical species – are diverse. In the Western tradition, unlike the East, dragons are terrifying, fire-breathing brutes. Even within the West they differ, particularly in size. In virtually every self-respecting European city there is an art museum with some version of a medieval St. George and the Dragon. The saint tends to be pretty similar from country to country. But the dragon’s scale dwindles dramatically from the south to the north of Europe, ranging from whale-sized in Spain or Portugal to something more like a middling Doberman pinscher in Norway or Sweden. The Chinese dragon is a different beast altogether – sinuous, intelligent, dangerous to be sure but not without a quotient of benevolence. In ancient mythology dragons bring the life-giving rain; droughts result when dragons aren’t properly respected. As China surged to renewed global prominence in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it at times resembled the Western dragon with its intimidating roars and the latent risk of conflagration.