| OCR Text |
Show WOMEN IN CAREERS ' ; IMPORTS CHINESE WORKS OF ART , y ''! , h,.y:i i f- X M; Harriet Ell!. M.cClcki. import, China, art for Sal Lakers. Making bar fir. trip to Chin. 22 year, .go. she h.s tine. .tudied Chinese .rt end crossed th. Pacific 54 t.m.s on h.r buying trips. I Editor's Note: This la another 1 of the series of articles on local Women In Careers by Zlna Hickman, Hick-man, women's editor of The Rait Lake Telegram. The next article will appear Wednesday. By ZINA HICKMAN "My favorite cities," said Miss Harriet Ellis MacCloskie, Importer Im-porter of fine Chinese art, "are Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Peking now Peiping." If for no other reason than that she has been privileged to spend so much time in Peking she refuses re-fuses to call the ancient city by its new 'name Miss MacCloskie feels fortunate in her choice of work. "Peking has a civilization seemingly as old as the world Itself," It-self," she said, "with' all the softening soft-ening influences of the modern which it has absorbed." Career Interesting Looking at the exquisite things Miss MacCloskie brings back with her from China she has crossed the Pacific ocean 54 times on her buying trips one does not wonder won-der that she finds her chosen career interesting: Old and modern mod-ern ivories, modern porcelains and period porcelains that date back to the Ming dynasty of the fourteenth century, hand-carved glass, agate, rose quarts and Jade figures, costume Jewelry made from precious and semiprecious stones, art linens .and Japanese kimonos these are the wares that intrigue the visitor to her ' lovely shop. "How do I buy my wares?" "Well, you must remember there are no wholesale houses in China as there are In America. I have to hunt for my wares. Sometimes Some-times I find them In the most humble dwellings if you can call anything aa lowly as a Chinese hut a dwelling." Cultural Background Miss MacCloskie adores the Chinese. Because of their long cultural background they are a very intelligent Interesting and pleasant people. Though this American buyer speaks little Chinese, Chi-nese, and those with whom she deals speak little English, they manage to get together on the language. "We both understand pidgin English which, translated, trans-lated, means business English very well," she said. Asked concerning the Chinese wars. Miss MacCloskie laughed. "Most of my information about Chinese wars was gained from American newspapers. Once when I was In a supposed serious, uprising on one of my buying trips, my first Intimation that China waa having a war was a cable from America asking if I was all right" 8ha added that controversies which In the western world might be settled with judges and lawyers. law-yers. In China are settled with an evidence of guns. "But before there Is any firing they've either ' changed their minds about the Issue involved or the sight of the guns has made them see light-end light-end the Chinese are not cowards, either. "On the contrary," she said, "they seem without fear. But I have said that the Chinese are very intelligent." First Trip Years Ago Miss MacCloskie's first trip to China was made 22 years ago, when she was sent there by a San Francisco firm of importers as office manager. She filled her four-year contract with this company com-pany and then became purchasing agent for a British marine insurance insur-ance company, In which capacity She purchased large quantities of stationery yearly. While employed In this work she saw the possibilities for buying buy-ing fine Chinese things and . bringing them to America for sale. She spent much of her leisure leis-ure time studying Chinese art and In 1927 returned to America to establish her shop. It is since that time she has made her numerous nu-merous buying trips back to the Orient. Packed with Interest are her . stories of visits to Peking, Soo-chow, Soo-chow, Hangchow, Nanking,' Shanghai. "One might as well be . In Paris, London, Berlin or New York as In cosmopolitan Bhang-hai." Bhang-hai." she said. Unforgettable are her trips .' down the lovely Pearl river front -Hongkong to Canton. i |
