The Lady and the Panda (46 page)

113
Her predecessor
Sheldon,
Wilderness Home,
pp. 4, 5, 16, 19, 41, 76, 106, 129.

113
The diggers lived Pandas of the Sleeping Dragon,
PBS Nature documentary, 1 Mar. 1996.

115
said to be five hundred
Sheldon,
Wilderness Home,
p. 62.

115
Exhausted, Harkness and Young
Schell,
Virtual Tibet
, p. 4.

116
The depictions were so graphic
Torrance,
Journal of the West China Border Research Society,
1932.

116
The botanist E. H. Wilson
Wilson,
A Naturalist in Western China,
p. 168.

116
The deities seemed proud
Schell,
Virtual Tibet,
p. 21.

116
Harkness, who loved the “frankness”
Harkness to Perkins, 24 Sept. 1937.

116
Something must have stirred
Although Harkness never actually revealed the romance publicly, she left poetic and sometimes rather obvious hints of it in the book she was to write later. Young went one step further; as an old man, he confirmed the relationship with reporter Michael Kiefer, and over time even told him where and when the liaison started. See Kiefer,
Chasing the Panda
.

117
But the issue had fascinated
Harkness to Perkins, 16 June 1936.

117
Emily Hahn and the poet
Sergeant,
Shanghai,
p. 293.

117
There were rooms for ancestor
Harkness to Perkins and others, 17 Oct. 1936.

117
Still, both whites and Chinese
Dong,
Shanghai
, p. 28.

119
Sage had written extensively
Sage, Jr., “In Quest,” p. 312.

119
“lonely, wild”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 171.

119
in her silk sleeping bag
Ibid., p. 193.

120
“Hurry up”
Ibid., p. 180.

120
Young strode down
Ibid., p. 181.

121
Not only were they climbing
Schaller,
Last Panda,
pp. 85–86, 26. As the stoic field biologist George Schaller would declare many years later, “The essence of panda tracking was discomfort.”

121
“Picture, if you can”
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 1.

121
Evidence too
William Theodore de Bary, Wing-Tsit Chan, and Burton Watson, eds.,
Sources of Chinese Tradition,
vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), from “Pao-p'u Tzu,” p. 259.

122
In this foggy region
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 1.

122
All along the route
Ibid.

122
Full of natural history data
Anne Birrell, trans.,
The Classic of Mountains and Seas
(London: Penguin Books, 1999), pp. 25, 124.

123
Here in the mountains
Schaller,
Last Panda,
pp. 61–62.

123
In general, though
Morris and Morris,
Men and Pandas,
pp. 28–30.

123
Now, in the cold of November
Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker,
The Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2002), p. 66.

123
For a male in the vicinity
Ibid., pp. 79–80.

123
Precisely who she was
“Chemical Communication in Giant Pandas,” “Panda 2000, Conservation Priorities for the New Millennium,” workshop at the San Diego Zoo, Oct. 2000,
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/conservation/fieldproject_panda2000.html
.

123
On this night, not far from Camp Two
Lumpkin and Seidensticker,
Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas,
p. 76. A tree of this age is usually required for a hollow big enough.

123
her two-month-old baby
Estimate of age from panda experts at Zoo Atlanta, from viewing photographs of Su-Lin.

123
Next to his mother
Lumpkin and Seidensticker,
Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas,
p. 89. Panda babies weigh about 3.5 ounces.

125
When Harkness first awoke
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 1, “Led by Tibetan, Mrs. Harkness Finds Prize in Frigid Wilds,”
New York American,
14 Feb. 1937.

125
She ate a spartan breakfast
Ibid.

126
The visibility was poor North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

126
In the dense fog
Abend, “Rare 4-Pound ‘Giant’ Panda,” 20 Dec. 1936.

126
Stumbling on
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 2, “Mrs. Harkness' Thrilling Story of Her Hunt in Asian Wilds,”
New York American,
21 Feb. 1937.

126
When he quickly surrendered
Ibid., parts 2 and 3.

127
At the bottom of Young's Tibetan trunk
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3, “How Mrs. Harkness Kept the Baby Panda Alive,”
New York American,
28 Feb. 1937.

127
Sitting outside the tent
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 32.

128
Harkness would report later
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

129
“or sprawled”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda
, p. 224.

129
Even his whimpering
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 2.

129
gaze on his placid
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 197.

129
“the most precious thing”
Ibid., p. 211.

129
Because there was no external scrotum
Su-Lin was discovered to be a male during dissection, reported in
Time,
1 May 1939; and in
Field Museum News,
p. 7, n.d. but must be May 1938.

129
“a week or two old”
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 2; and Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 31.

129
actually about eight or nine weeks
Consensus of panda experts at Zoo Atlanta, examining photos of Su-Lin, Mar. 2003. Pictures brought to zoo by
Jolly Young. Experts included zoo's veterinarian and the director of the Chengdu panda-breeding facility.

130
fashioned a comfortable cradle
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 31.

130
Hudson Bay blanket
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

130
They did everything to keep North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

130
It had all gone to their heads
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 191.

130
“The thing I most wanted”
Ibid.

130
Life was so good here
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 31.

130
the Immortals of Daoist belief
Edward L. Shaughnessy, ed.,
China: Empire and Civilization
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 91, 95.

130
“Heaven is my bed”
Chang Heng, “The Bones of Chuang Tzu,”
Anthology of Chinese Literature: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century,
ed. Cyril Birch (New York: Grove Press, 1965), p. 178.

131
Rain and sleet
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

131
The panda was cuddled
Ibid.

132
Firecrackers exploded
Ruth Harkness, “In a Tibetan Lamasery,”
Gourmet,
Mar. 1944, p. 58.

132
They sometimes lived in temples
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 36.

133
Wisely, Su-Lin
Ibid., pp. 36–39.

134
After her days in the mountains
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

134
She kept Baby close North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

134
A vigilant mother
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

134
For the journey to Guanxian
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
pp. 39–40.

135
Instead, Harkness pressed
Abend, “Rare 4-Pound ‘Giant’ Panda.”

135
At first light
Ibid.; also, the picture of Harkness with Hosie in
North China Daily News,
29 Nov. 1936.

136
Lady Hosie was the daughter
“Lady Dorothea Hosie, Lecturer on Chinese, Found Typhoon of Wit,”
China Press,
28 July 1936; and “Lady Hosie,”
North China Herald,
29 July 1936.

136
The chance encounter North China Daily News,
29 Nov. 1936.

136
The very British
Dorothea Hosie,
Brave New China
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938), pp. 138–39.

137
When he came to a stop
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

137
He was spending the night
Ibid.

138
Ruth Harkness felt it was
Lin Yutang,
Moment in Peking
(New York: John Day, 1939), p. 9.

138
The next morning, November 17
The
China Press,
which met her at the airport, says she got into Shanghai on 17 Nov. (3 Dec. edition).
New York Times,
18 Nov. 1936, says she arrived in Chengdu on 17 Nov., and we know she spent one night there.

138
Douglas fourteen-passenger airplane
From “Improvement of CNAC Airways,”
“Tales of Old Shanghai” website. CNAC added another fourteenpassenger Douglas to its fleet in 1935 to ensure one-day travel between Shanghai and Chengdu. Leaving at 7
A.M.
, one could reach Chengdu by 3:30
P.M.

138
November marked
W. Langhorne Bond,
Wings for an Embattled China,
ed. James E. Ellis (Bethlehem, Penn.: Lehigh University Press, 2001), p. 87.

139
The sound of droning engines
China National Aviation Corporation website,
http://www.CNAC.org
.

139
Captain Mac, who had draped
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda
, p. 47 (Kyatang says a porter carried the basket).

140
“The animal is believed” New York Times,
18 Nov. 1936.

140
The flashed message
“Baby Giant,”
Time,
7 Dec. 1936.

140
She would do this
“Battle Over, Panda and Captor Sail,”
China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

140
She wanted to make sure Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
2 Dec. 1936, talks about her heading out over the Yellow Sea, but maps from
National Geographic
(big map from 1933) and small, detailed map on p. 491, of Oct. 1937, indicate East China Sea.

140
Since the airport
Baum,
Shanghai '37
.

141
As one of the heads of Standard Oil
Jane Reib Pollock (Reib's daughter), conversation with author, 2 Dec. 2003. Reib even lived across the street from T. V. Soong, onetime minister of finance and brother-in-law of Chiang Kai-shek.

141
cuddling tiny Su-Lin
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda
, p. 227.

141
“She has personality”
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 48.

141
“broken all the rules”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 223.

141
“naughty child”
Ibid., p. 224.

141
And as
The New York Times “Baby Panda Here, Enjoys Its Bottle,”
New York Times,
24 Dec. 1936.

141
After feeding Su-Lin
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 48.

141
She comforted
Peggy McCleskey, interview by author, 29 Aug. 2002 and email correspondence, 28 Aug. 2002.

141
At first
Peggy McCleskey e-mail.

142
The panda grew stronger North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

142
Nance went home
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3, “How Mrs. Harkness Kept the Baby Panda Alive,”
New York American,
28 Feb. 1937.

142
The next day
Postal telegraph received at 299 Main St., Danbury, Conn., from Shanghai, 18 Nov. 1936.

142
She would shortly afterward
Abend, “Rare 4-Pound ‘Giant’ Panda.”

142
he recommended that
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 228.

142
She was the hush-hush China Press,
28 Nov. 1936.

142
In the mountains North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

142
In the town
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
pp. 55, 67.

143
Su-Lin's circle
Elizabeth Smith to Ruth Woodhull Tangier Smith, 8 Dec. 1936, Floyd Tangier Smith Papers, Library of Congress.

143
They became Su-Lin's North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

143
Hardenbrooke, a Kodak
“Tibetan Border New Quiet,”
North China Herald,
26 Aug. 1936.

144
Given Harkness's inner circle
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

144
In each case China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

144
“an influential person”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
pp. 230–32.

144
The earliest liner
“Foreign Sailings,”
China Press,
28 Nov. 1936.

144
As the holiday approached China Press,
21 Nov. 1936.

144
Once, in a dark moment
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 235.

145
She gave up her time
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 32.

145
Long afterward New Mexico State Tribune Company
stamped on undated article headlined “Sought Pandas Because Few White Men Caught Them,” Feb. 1938.