The Lady and the Panda (51 page)

224
What she saw was real
Schaller,
Last Panda
, p. 98.

224
One night, the rhythms
Harkness to Perkins, 2 Nov. 1937.

224
Out here, she had faith
Harkness to Perkins, 5 Nov. 1937.

224
In this mood
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937; and 24 Oct. 1937, says she knows what she is going to do with Nya-Nya; she mentions the story again to Perkie in letter of 10 Dec. 1937.

224
Her agent would
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

224
It was fresh
Harkness to Perkins, 15 Nov. 1937.

225
In a dark corner China Press,
16 Jan. 1938, gives Su-Lin's weight at the time as seventy-five pounds. Yin was said to be Su-Lin's size.

225
The sorry state
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

225
But Yin wanted
Ibid.

226
He told her
Harkness to Perkins, 10 Dec. 1937.

226
“Really I can't describe”
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

226
At least poor Yin finally
Ibid.

227
The bamboo-obsessed
Lumpkin and Seidensticker,
Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas
, p. 79. George Schaller, in conversation with author, 19 Apr. 2004, says both males and females display this behavior. E-mail from biologist
Devra Kleiman, 23 July 2004: “I don't know whether you are speaking of headstands or handstands; it is the latter that pandas use when they scent mark. Males do most of these behaviors, but females also do so very occasionally. Pandas stand on their heads during other behaviors, in my experience, but not during scent marking.”

227
Since she couldn't go
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

227
The new, loftlike
Ibid.

227
So she moved in
Ibid.

227
Through experimentation
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

228
With fewer comforts
Harkness to Perkins, 10 Dec. 1937.

228
If she failed
Harkness to Pierce, 10 Dec. 1937.

228
“I've been plotting”
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

228
Cavaliere had begun
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

228
What she was hearing
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Oct. 1937.

228
On November 11
Spence,
Search for Modern China
, p. 423.

228
But within no time
Tuchman,
Stilwell
, pp. 176, 177.

228
She would find a way
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

228
In the meantime
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Oct. 1937.

229
She mentioned the capture
Pierce to Perkins, dated only “Tuesday,” probably from Jan. 1938, though filed in Dec. folder because it makes reference to Harkness's letter of 10 Dec. 1937.

229
Harkness didn't seem
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937.

229
Within weeks
Harkness to Perkins, 10 Dec. 1937.

229
Her letters were peppered
Harkness to Pierce, 10 Dec. 1937.

229
Quaker Oats
Harkness to Perkins, 10 Dec. 1937.

229
Seven panels Anadarko Oklahoma News,
11 Nov. 1937; and
Palestine
(
Tex.
)
Advocate,
5 Nov. 1937.

229
Two American women
“Su-Lin Doesn't Mind Winter at All,”
Martinsville (Ill.
)
Planet,
23 Dec. 1938. One of hundreds of similar articles kept in the Brookfield Zoo archives. Same article, headline, and photo in papers from Montana, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Brookfield Zoo archives.

229
fifty-cent children's book
Ruth Ann Waring and Helen Wells,
Su-Lin
(New York: Rand McNally, 1937).

230
A clothing company
Newspaper ad from the Brookfield Zoo archives—no date or company name, but ad encourages readers to visit Su-Lin at Brookfield.

230
Calvert whiskey
Harkness to Perkins, 1 Dec. 1937, refers to ad; author has a copy of one from
Chicago Tribune,
6 Apr. 1938.

230
There was a jointed
“Baby Panda Here Has Own Amah, Passport,”
China Press,
16 Jan. 1938; also newspaper ad from the Brookfield Zoo archives.

230
By Christmastime
“Study Mystery of Su-Lin's Death,”
Chicago Daily Tribune,
2 Apr. 1938.

230
Dionne quintuplets
Correspondence between the Brookfield Zoo and the
Dionne Quintuplet Guardianship, 15 Dec. 1937 and 26 Mar. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

230
None of the profits
“Panda Andy,” article from an unidentified newspaper, Brookfield Zoo archives.

230
Adding in the money
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

231
She gauged the competition
Harkness to Pierce, 10 Dec. 1937.

231
Although Smith had not
“Floyd Smith in China to Hunt Elusive Panda,”
Washington Post,
29 Dec. 1937.

231
His indignation
Fragment of letter from Floyd Tangier Smith to his sister Ruth, n.d., but must have been written in fall 1937 from, most likely, London, Floyd Tangier Smith Papers, Library of Congress. See also Floyd Tangier Smith, “Collecting a Zoo in China,”
Home and Empire,
Nov. 1937, p. 6, Smith Papers.

231
With his latest associations
Floyd Tangier Smith, “Hunting the Giant Panda,”
Listener Rack,
Smith Papers.

231
He was even feeling upbeat
Smith, “Collecting a Zoo in China,” p. 6.

231
And in another article
Smith, “Hunting the Giant Panda.”

231
He said the giant panda
Ibid.

231
“contented, well fed brood sow”
Smith, document/letter 12 Oct. 1937, Smith Papers.

231
He could not
Smith, “Collecting a Zoo in China,” p. 6.

232
Things began to look up
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

232
Despite the mood-lifting
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 19.

232
She still believed
Harkness to Pierce and Perkins, 16 Dec. 1937.

232
Once she had made up
Ibid.

235
Ruth Harkness's days
“Panda Is Bored by Jap Air Raid,” Associated Press, dateline Hankow, China, 6 Jan. 1937, Brookfield Zoo archives; and “Su-Lin's Baby Sister Braves Hanchow [
sic
] Raid on Way Here,”
Chicago Daily News,
7 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

235
Resplendent in a turban
“Second Baby Giant Panda Caught Alive Arrives Here,”
China Press,
14 Jan. 1938, with many pictures of Ruth and Su-Lin, one on ship.

235
Japanese air raid hit
“Japanese Air Raids on Hankow, Many Fires Blaze, Hospital Wrecked by Planes' Bombs,”
South China Morning Post,
7 Jan. 1938.

235
A sortie of pursuit planes
“Su-Lin's Baby Sister Braves Hanchow [
sic
] Raid.”

235
As Harkness emerged
“Another Baby Giant Panda Found by Mrs. Harkness in West China,”
New York Times,
8 Jan. 1938.

235
United Press
“Chicago Giant Panda to Get a ‘Sister’ Soon,” United Press item, no newspaper affiliation attached, Brookfield Zoo archives.

236
The bloodshed
“Panda Is Bored.”

236
Beginning on December 13
Spence,
Search for Modern China,
p. 423; and Iris Chang,
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
(New York: Penguin Books, 1997), p. 3.

236
On December 18 New York Times,
8 Jan. 1938.

236
a hidden adult panda China Press,
14 Jan. 1938.

236
As the animal fled
“Panda Hunter Tells Story of Patient Quest,”
Chicago Sunday Tribune,
20 Feb. 1938.

236
The days without
“New Trip Planned by Mrs. Harkness,”
New York Times,
27 Feb. 1938.

238
In the big city
Ruth Harkness, “In a Tibetan Lamasery,” Harkness says this party was thrown in the beautifully appointed home of her American hostess.

238 The China Journal
China Journal,
“Travel and Exploration Notes,” Jan. 1938, p. 38.

239
She was convinced
Harkness to Edward Bean, 3 May 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

239
Harkness had come
Tuchman,
Stilwell
, p. 180.

239
upper reaches of government
“Baby Panda Here Has Own Amah, Passport,”
China Press,
16 Jan. 1938.

239
Later, this one too
Morris and Morris,
Men and Pandas
.

239
Officials in Hankou New York Times,
9 Jan. 1938, reports Harkness arrives by plane in Hong Kong from Hankow on Sun., 8 Jan. 1938. Says she plans to sail for U.S. Mon. Also “Panda Is Bored.”

239
“the queerest passenger”
“Baby Panda Here; Curious Air Passenger Arrives from Hankow”
South China Morning Post,
10 Jan. 1938; and “Panda Playmate for Su-Lin Starts Long Trip to Chicago Zoo,”
Chicago Tribune,
9 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo Archives. Called Mei-Mei here. See also
South China Morning Post,
10 Jan. 1938; “Giant Panda Expected in Colony To-day,”
Hong Kong Telegraph,
8 Jan. 1938, p. 1; and “Su Lin and Friend,”
Chicago Times
9 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives (called Diana).

240
“the dark, sharp features”
“Second Baby Giant Panda Caught Alive Arrives Here,”
China Press,
14 Jan. 1938.

240
Understanding just what they
“Panda Hunter Tells Story of Patient Quest,”
Chicago Sunday Tribune,
20 Feb. 1938.

241
The city was still
Dong,
Shanghai
, p. 256.

241
The International Settlement
“Canadian Pacific and Dollar Ships Resume Shanghai Calls Soon, Empress of Asia Due from Vancouver Monday,”
China Press,
20 Jan. 1938; and
North China Daily News,
26 Jan. 1938.

241
plate glass in its front
Dong,
Shanghai,
p. 257.

241
Ernie Kaai's
Ad from
China Press,
20 Jan. 1938.

241
And the movies
“‘The Good Earth,’ Epic Film of China, Opens at Nanking
Tonight,”
China Press,
6 Jan. 1938; and “Great Picture Opens Tonight at Metropole; Gala Premiere of ‘Lost Horizon,’ Starring Ronald Colman,”
China Press,
27 Jan. 1938.

241
Fights broke out
“‘Incident’ Mars Evening of Night-Lifers at Ballroom,”
China Press,
15 Jan. 1938; and “Four Japanese Cause Trouble in Dance Hall; Want to Fight Patrons, Hostesses in Great Eastern Ballrooms,”
China Press,
20 Jan. 1938.

241
The Japanese were beginning
“Whither Shanghai? The Conquerors Show Their Authority,”
Hong Kong Daily Press,
8 Jan. 1938.

241
the papers would report
“Terrorists Hurl 4 Bombs in Foreign Areas Within Hour,”
China Press,
28 Jan. 1938.

241
To cope
“Baby Panda Here Has Own Amah,”
North China Daily News,
23 Jan. 1938; and
China Press,
23 Jan. 1938.

241
Photographs of the woman
“Exhibited to Aid Refugees,”
Shanghai Times,
27 Jan. 1938.

241
But with Diana
“Baby Panda Here Has Own Amah.”

241
Harkness's celebrity
“Sea Voyage of a Baby Panda,”
Christian Science Monitor,
1 June 1938, p. 10.

242
With the publication
“Lady & Pandas,”
Time,
24 Jan. 1938.

242 The New York Times Book “The Adventurous Lady Who Captured the Panda,”
New York Times Book Review,
16 Jan. 1938.

242
For better or worse
Poore, “Books of the Times.”

242
And
The Christian Science “Lady and Panda: Book News of the Day,”
Christian Science Monitor,
18 Jan. 1938, p. 20.

242 Time
grumbled
“Lady & Pandas.”

242
Because she didn't write
Poore, “Books of the Times.”

242
What no one could miss
Ibid.

242
And its Sunday New York Times Book Review,
16 Jan. 1938.

243
While a winter chill
“Baby Giant Panda Slated for ‘Personal Appearance’ Here,”
China Press,
22 Jan. 1938.

243
The upending of everything
Mu Soeng,
The Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way We Perceive the World
(Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000).

243
While the press
“Panda Hunter Tells Story.”

243
When she first wired
Telegram, Ruth Harkness to Brookfield Zoo, 30 Dec. 1937. Full text reads:
HAPPY NEW YEAR SMALL SISTER NO HUSBAND, AND IS SIGNED HARKNESS
, Brookfield Zoo archives.

243
“Su-Lin” had wired back
Telegram, Brookfield Zoo to Ruth Harkness, 1 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

243
The
Chicago Times “Sorry, Su-Lin. It's a Girl! Love Hopes of Giant Panda Blasted,”
Chicago Times,
7 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

244
The
Chicago American “Here's Chance to Get Rich, Find Su-Lin a Playmate,”
Chicago American,
20 Jan. 1938, Brookfield Zoo archives.

244
Even without Dan Reib
Jane Reib Pollock (Reib's daughter), telephone conversation with author, 2 Dec. 2003.

244
Sowerby showed
“Baby Giant Panda Invades Sanctum of Shanghai Club Bar,”
China Press,
25 Jan. 1938;
China Journal,
Feb. 1938, p. 97, reports the date as Sat., 22 Jan. 1938; “Baby Panda Here Has Own Amah”; and “Second Baby Panda Leaves for America,”
China Press,
29 Jan. 1938. Visit at noon on the day of Harkness's departure.