When Yaya and Meixiang's family were wronged abroad, we can forcefully demand to take them home now. However, if we go back a hundred years, many giant pandas will be killed and snatched away by Westerners. any protection.

Adult pandas were difficult to tame, so they were skinned and dismantled to make specimens; the panda mother was beaten to death and the cubs were stolen. They did not last long in a foreign country, and their bodies were eventually placed in foreign museums. , can never go home.

Among the tragic experiences of these national treasures, there is an American woman who must be mentioned. The giant pandas stolen from China made her a lot of money, and she was hailed as the "hero who saved the giant pandas." However, in the end, she died alone and miserably. This is the story of "Panda Lady" Ruth Harkness story.

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Overnight fame, but attracted shotguns

The giant panda that was first known to foreigners was actually just a piece of black and white fur found in ordinary villagers' homes in the mountains of Sichuan.

In 2006, staff at the Chongqing Museum of Natural History were restoring panda skin specimens from the last century

That was in 1869. Westerners at that time had already had an impression of China. From an "ideal country" full of gold and gems to a weak and easy-to-get "fat", everything in China represents huge benefits to Westerners, even the wild animals in the mountains. .

A French missionary and zoologist named Armand Davide heard about a place called Sichuan Province, where there are high mountains, deep valleys, dense jungles, and a very rich wildlife. resources, many of which the outside world has never heard of.

The old Armand David

At that time, the Western world had begun to plunder China's various resources. This missionary traveled from Shanghai to what is now Ya'an, Sichuan, and lived in Baoxing County. In the small village of Dengchigou, he serves as the priest of the church here. While spreading the teachings, he is eager to discover strange animals that he has never seen before.

The current Dengchigou Catholic Church

It was in this village that the priest did not stay long before he saw a black and white animal skin at a fellow villager’s house, which was said to be Hunted from the nearby mountains and forests, the locals call this animal "white bear" or "flower bear".

Of course this is the fur of the giant panda. The local villagers didn't think the "white bear" was that strange, but Father David had never seen fur with such a strange color. So before 1869 was over, he immediately hired local hunters to go into the mountains to catch a live "white bear" and send it back to France.

At that time, China was still in the late Qing Dynasty, and the people's life was very difficult. They had no idea how precious the "white bears" that were common here were. Since someone was paying, just catch them.

The hunter did catch a live "white bear" for the priest. Unfortunately, the technical conditions at the time were too poor and he did not understand the habits of this animal. The bear died not long after leaving Sichuan. halfway. There was no other way, Father David could only peel off its skin, process it and make it into a specimen and send it back to France.

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The stuffed giant panda fur and bones

After the specimens were exhibited, they immediately caused a huge sensation in the Western world. Many explorers and scientists wanted to challenge the impossible and were gearing up to make vows. I must bring a live "white bear" back, so I swarmed towards the hot and humid Sichuan Basin.

The Japanese expedition team that went to Dunhuang to steal treasures in 1911 took a photo with the locals

That was almost 150 years ago, and even the most developed countries at that time had nothing With the concept of protecting animals, these Westerners rushed into the jungle carrying shotguns. If it is too difficult to bring back a live "white bear", then it would be meaningful to bring back souvenirs such as a few skins and skeletons.

These people include not only the two sons of President Roosevelt, but also an American explorer. It is precisely because of this explorer that "Mrs. Panda" came to China.

“She is the hero who saved the giant panda!”

After Father David discovered the giant panda, the time came to 1934. In this year, a man named Bill Harkness American explorer married a wife, Ruth Harkness.

Two years later, in 1936, Bill, who went to China, never found the giant panda, but died of illness in Shanghai. As a widow, Ruth came to China on October 20 of the same year. After taking care of her husband's funeral affairs, she did not forget her husband's last wish, so she financed a 19-member expedition team to search for giant pandas in Wenchuan, Sichuan.

Because of the language barrier, Ruth found a Chinese guide. This guide's name is Yang Dize, who is also a legendary figure and has a close relationship with giant pandas.

Yang Dize is a Chinese-American and an early member of the Communist Youth League. His grandfather is the hometown of Sun Yat-sen's brother. When he studied in Wuhan in his early years, his class teacher was Liu Shaoqi. Yang Dize participated in the Anti-Japanese War and the Pacific War in his life, marched about 180,000 kilometers and crossed the Pacific 34 times.

In 1928, he was hired by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a staff member of the Liaison Office in the United States. Later, he was entrusted to go to Tibet to collect rare animal specimens. In 1928, he successfully found the world's first complete giant panda specimen. .

Yang Dize climbed to the top of Gongga Mountain in the 1920s and planted the Chinese flag on the peak (photographed at an altitude of 5,800 meters)

Ruth’s expedition team was in Wenchuan An adult giant panda was discovered, but unfortunately it was not captured alive. The gunfire scared the giant panda away. Just when Ruth thought she had failed, the expedition team found a little cub that was just about three months old in a nearby tree hole.

Ruth was overjoyed. She thought the cub was female. In order to thank Yang Dize and his wife for their help, she named the cub "Su Lin" after his wife.

After finding a living giant panda, the next step is of course to bring it back to the United States.

It’s just that that era was too special and chaotic. Although the Republic of China government at that time strictly prohibited anyone from taking China’s live wild animals out of the country, after all, the country was weak. After Ruth contacted the US government to put pressure on China After that, she had no choice but to issue an animal entry and exit permit, allowing her to successfully take Su Lin to the United States.

Looking at the entry-exit permit later, it was completely a reminder for little Su Lin. On the document, Su Lin was just a "strange-shaped pug."

The first living giant panda attracted the attention of the world, and Ruth gained unprecedented fame. People think she is saving the giant panda by bringing such a strange animal to civilized society. They said that those who can bring their prey back alive are the real warriors, and they called her a hero.

However, no one really cared about what the young Su Lin would eat. After leaving her mother and hometown, she survived by relying on a glass bottle and milk that Ruth brought with her.

Ruth was very happy about its strength. She offered a price of US$20,000 to the outside world, hoping that Su Lin could make a lot of money for herself. However, the price was too high at the time. In the end, after bargaining, Chicago Brookfield Zoo got little Su Lin for US$14,000.

Little Su Lin attracted 320,000 visitors in the first three months of going to the zoo. However, because she was not adapted to the food and climate, her condition became worse and worse, and she barely reached 1 year old. about.

Seeing that Su Lin was getting weaker and weaker, in 1937, Ruth announced that she would go to China again to catch a male giant panda back for Su Lin so that it could leave its own offspring.

Su Lin, Mei Mei, and many unnamed giant pandas

In 1937, Su Lin, the first living giant panda brought to the United States, was already very weak because The Americans at that time didn't know what it ate, so they fed it cooked carrots and vegetable leaves every day, which gradually drove Su Lin, who had just turned 1 year old, closer to death.

And the "Panda Lady" Ruth, who stole Su Lin to the United States, set off to China again under the spotlight. She repeated her old tricks and hired a guide and an expedition team to go into the mountains and forests of Sichuan.

This time her guide was named Yang Dilin (some say Yang Kunting), who was the younger brother of Yang Dize who guided her last time. He took her around the mountains and finally caught a giant panda that was about to reach adulthood. Ruth thought it was still female and named it "Mei Mei".

As for why they failed to capture a male giant panda, it was because among all the giant pandas the expedition encountered this time, only Meimei was the youngest and could be captured alive.

The other giant pandas are all adults and very unfriendly to humans. Ruth and her expedition team had no choice but to kill these giant pandas that could not be captured alive, including Meimei’s mother.

Ruth brought Meimei back to the United States, which once again aroused people's enthusiastic pursuit of giant pandas. Zoos needed pandas, and manufacturers launched panda-related products. A "panda craze" swept from the United States to Europe. , but failed to save Su Lin and Mei Mei who were far away in a foreign country.

Foreigners still love giant pandas (the picture shows Ruyi living in Russia celebrating her birthday)

In 1938, Su Lin died when she was less than two years old; in 1942, Meimei also died . There are different opinions on the cause of their death, but after autopsy, it was discovered that Su Lin and Mei Mei were both male giant pandas.

From the panda fur specimens that Father David brought back to Europe to the two giant pandas that Ruth tried her best to smuggle back to the United States, people can see the huge benefits that giant pandas can bring. Therefore, many people went to the mountains of Sichuan to get a giant panda.

But after all, adult giant pandas are bears that can weigh more than 100 kilograms, have sharp claws and brute strength. They are very wary of humans. It is not easy to capture them alive, and even more difficult. After catching them, transport them out of the country alive.

However, as long as you experiment a few times, you can always find a way. So between 1936 and 1941, the Americans stole nine living pandas back. The other side of Europe was equally enthusiastic. There was a British man named Tangier, known as the "Panda King". From 1936 to 1938, he acquired 9 live giant pandas and brought 6 of them to the UK.

"Panda King" Tangier and the giant panda he bought (restored old photo)

Behind these numbers, there are many more who were not captured alive and who died after being captured alive. Even the bodies of the giant pandas that did not survive were thrown away.

That era was the most difficult time for China in modern times. We were unable to protect the national treasure. The already small wild giant panda population, after experiencing unrestrained poaching and even massacre, lost its reputation abroad. Great growth, but the number in the country has dropped sharply to the point of almost extinction.

After we survived World War II, the government began to restrict foreigners’ hunting activities in China. Later, it used “panda diplomacy” to promote the country’s culture and image, and even established the giant panda as a national treasure. We vigorously protected them, and today we can directly demand that Yaya and Meixiang’s family be brought back to China as soon as possible.

As for the "Panda Lady" Ruth, who brought live pandas to the United States for the first time, perhaps because Su Lin's death made her too sad, she never came to China again in her life. After Meimei's death, she wrote a book called "The Madam and the Panda". In the end, she used the giant panda to earn a royalties, and gradually no one cared about her.

In 1947, in a cheap hotel in Pennsylvania, no one knew what 47-year-old Ruth had gone through. She was so poor that she could not afford the room fee. The last time her name appeared in the world was an obituary for drowning in a bathtub due to alcoholism.