Adelaide 'Su-Lin' Young, Explorer Whose Name Was Given To First Giant Panda In U.S., 96
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PyrateJohn
Jun 10, 2008, 1:27:45 PM6/10/08
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Adelaide 'Su-Lin' Young, 96; explorer's name was given to 1st giant
panda in U.S.
By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post
Adelaide "Su-Lin" Young, the first American woman to explore the
rugged Himalayas in the 1930s and for whom the first giant panda
brought to the United States was named, died April 17 [2008] of
cardiopulmonary arrest at a home-care facility in the Bay Area
community of Hercules [California]. She was 96.
An unlikely explorer, the pampered and glamorous daughter of a New
York [New York] nightclub owner probed the arduous territory of
southwest China as a newlywed in 1934. She was accompanied by her
husband, brother-in-law and an ever-changing cast of local porters.
She shot a bear for food, preserved botanical specimens for the
American Museum of Natural History and slept with a loaded pistol
under her pillow as protection against bandits.
Although her only previous outdoor experience was as a summer camp
counselor in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Young adapted. She
learned to gather her own food, cook over a campfire and politely
turn
down invitations to visit flea-infested yurts. Bathing or brushing
her
teeth drew curious onlookers; trying to discard tattered clothing was
useless, one of her daughters said, because the group's porters kept
retrieving it and putting it in her saddlebags. As the sole woman in
the company of men, she was an object of fascination and was
considered a foreigner by the native Chinese.
"In Tibet, Su-Lin had sometimes stayed in yak-hair tents, drinking
yak-
butter tea, warmed over a yak-dung fire," Vicki Croke wrote in "The
Lady and the Panda" (2005). "Everything she ate was suffused with
stray strands of yak hair. The smell of it all was unfortunately
unforgettable to her."
Early in the trip, she shot a large bear but almost immediately
expressed regret.
"It wasn't just the killing of the bear that upset her," said one of
her three daughters, Jolly King of Honolulu. "After she did it, she
realized [the bear] had two cubs. It was still disturbing to her in
her mid-80s."
As a result of the incident, she persuaded her family to stop
collecting dead animal specimens and instead bring live exotic
animals
back to museums and zoos.
After the expedition, the trio withdrew to Shanghai, where Young
worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including the China
Journal and the North China Daily News. There she met Ruth Harkness,
another American woman, who captured, named and transported the first
giant panda to the United States.
The first panda came to share Young's name, Croke wrote, because when
Harkness saw it curled up on Young's sheepskin coat, she immediately
thought of Su-Lin, a name that can mean "a little bit of something
very cute." Young, Croke wrote, was a small woman, "beautiful and
vivacious . . . exuberant and kind."
Su-Lin lived at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago [Illinois] for many
years, and the body is preserved at Chicago's Field Museum. Another
Su-
Lin, born in 2005 at the San Diego [California] Zoo, also bears
Young's name.
After the expedition, Young lived in and was evacuated from Shanghai,
Beijing [China] and Nanking [China] during World War II. She was a
disc jockey in Taiwan, a suburban Washington [DC] homemaker for two
years in the 1950s, an employee of the Social Security Administration
in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a retiree in
Spruce Pine, North Carolina. She returned to the San Francisco
[California] area in 2003.
Young, a native New Yorker, attended Wesleyan College in Macon,
Gorgia, and held a series of "daring" jobs during the Depression, her
daughters said, including serving tea on a transatlantic cruise ship
and working as a cigarette girl in her father's nightclub. The second
job lasted but a day when she naively asked another employee to watch
her box of money and smokes while she visited the ladies' room; both
had disappeared when she returned.
"She was very determined, very self-reliant, very image-conscious,"
said another daughter, Jackie Wan of Hercules. "She had to be dressed
perfectly, every hair in place, and she fit in everywhere she went."
In 2001, Young was honored at the Memphis Zoo as one of three
explorers who opened the East to the West.
Her marriage to Jack Young ended in divorce.
In addition to her two daughters, survivors include another daughter,
Jocelyn Fenton of Dallas [Texas]; two sisters; a brother; two
grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Young rarely talked about her early life to her children until King
found 300 photos of the 1934 expedition in an old photo album.
"It wasn't considered acceptable behavior at the time," King said.
"It
wasn't until she started getting interviewed in the 1990s that she
really opened up about it."
She pretended to shrug off having the first American panda as her
namesake, "but the first thing she'd do was show people pictures,"
King said. "Bottom line: She was thrilled."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-young10-2008jun10,0,6550...
panda in U.S.
By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post
Adelaide "Su-Lin" Young, the first American woman to explore the
rugged Himalayas in the 1930s and for whom the first giant panda
brought to the United States was named, died April 17 [2008] of
cardiopulmonary arrest at a home-care facility in the Bay Area
community of Hercules [California]. She was 96.
An unlikely explorer, the pampered and glamorous daughter of a New
York [New York] nightclub owner probed the arduous territory of
southwest China as a newlywed in 1934. She was accompanied by her
husband, brother-in-law and an ever-changing cast of local porters.
She shot a bear for food, preserved botanical specimens for the
American Museum of Natural History and slept with a loaded pistol
under her pillow as protection against bandits.
Although her only previous outdoor experience was as a summer camp
counselor in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Young adapted. She
learned to gather her own food, cook over a campfire and politely
turn
down invitations to visit flea-infested yurts. Bathing or brushing
her
teeth drew curious onlookers; trying to discard tattered clothing was
useless, one of her daughters said, because the group's porters kept
retrieving it and putting it in her saddlebags. As the sole woman in
the company of men, she was an object of fascination and was
considered a foreigner by the native Chinese.
"In Tibet, Su-Lin had sometimes stayed in yak-hair tents, drinking
yak-
butter tea, warmed over a yak-dung fire," Vicki Croke wrote in "The
Lady and the Panda" (2005). "Everything she ate was suffused with
stray strands of yak hair. The smell of it all was unfortunately
unforgettable to her."
Early in the trip, she shot a large bear but almost immediately
expressed regret.
"It wasn't just the killing of the bear that upset her," said one of
her three daughters, Jolly King of Honolulu. "After she did it, she
realized [the bear] had two cubs. It was still disturbing to her in
her mid-80s."
As a result of the incident, she persuaded her family to stop
collecting dead animal specimens and instead bring live exotic
animals
back to museums and zoos.
After the expedition, the trio withdrew to Shanghai, where Young
worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including the China
Journal and the North China Daily News. There she met Ruth Harkness,
another American woman, who captured, named and transported the first
giant panda to the United States.
The first panda came to share Young's name, Croke wrote, because when
Harkness saw it curled up on Young's sheepskin coat, she immediately
thought of Su-Lin, a name that can mean "a little bit of something
very cute." Young, Croke wrote, was a small woman, "beautiful and
vivacious . . . exuberant and kind."
Su-Lin lived at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago [Illinois] for many
years, and the body is preserved at Chicago's Field Museum. Another
Su-
Lin, born in 2005 at the San Diego [California] Zoo, also bears
Young's name.
After the expedition, Young lived in and was evacuated from Shanghai,
Beijing [China] and Nanking [China] during World War II. She was a
disc jockey in Taiwan, a suburban Washington [DC] homemaker for two
years in the 1950s, an employee of the Social Security Administration
in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a retiree in
Spruce Pine, North Carolina. She returned to the San Francisco
[California] area in 2003.
Young, a native New Yorker, attended Wesleyan College in Macon,
Gorgia, and held a series of "daring" jobs during the Depression, her
daughters said, including serving tea on a transatlantic cruise ship
and working as a cigarette girl in her father's nightclub. The second
job lasted but a day when she naively asked another employee to watch
her box of money and smokes while she visited the ladies' room; both
had disappeared when she returned.
"She was very determined, very self-reliant, very image-conscious,"
said another daughter, Jackie Wan of Hercules. "She had to be dressed
perfectly, every hair in place, and she fit in everywhere she went."
In 2001, Young was honored at the Memphis Zoo as one of three
explorers who opened the East to the West.
Her marriage to Jack Young ended in divorce.
In addition to her two daughters, survivors include another daughter,
Jocelyn Fenton of Dallas [Texas]; two sisters; a brother; two
grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Young rarely talked about her early life to her children until King
found 300 photos of the 1934 expedition in an old photo album.
"It wasn't considered acceptable behavior at the time," King said.
"It
wasn't until she started getting interviewed in the 1990s that she
really opened up about it."
She pretended to shrug off having the first American panda as her
namesake, "but the first thing she'd do was show people pictures,"
King said. "Bottom line: She was thrilled."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-young10-2008jun10,0,6550...
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