Evening journal., 1901-12-24
Chinese Belle and Beauty

Everybody in Washington society is
interested in the debut of Miss WI
Shou Ching, the adopted daughter of
Mr.. and Mrs. WI. the Chinese minister
and his wife Although columns have
been written about this small repre-
sentative from the Flowery Kingdom,
anything and everything pertaining to
her is largely read.
Miss WI, who has already been
nicknamed Daisy" is just one year
over sweet 16," as we Americans
reckon time She is petite, fascinat-
ing and wholly Oriental. In her land
they call her 16, but the years are
longer there than in Yankeedom. She
is pretty as a plum blossom-tO the
Chinese way of thinking-and at once
highbred and blue blooded. Also she
is very rich-Which counts nowadays.
Miss WI when dressed the other
day for the reception of visitors had
her face covered with very fine and
very white rice powder and her cheeks
were rouge. Her narrow eyebrows,
carefully formed under the maids deft
fingers, were blackened and her mouth
had Just one narrow carmine streak
at the center of the full lower lip, as
though she had been dining on rose
buds. AS to the rest of her features,
she has long, dark, cOquettish locks,
combed after a fashion peculiar to
Chinese damsels, and quite impossible
for married women. AS in Yiddish
circles, where married women are sup
posed to shave their hair and make
themselves otherwise hideous that
they may attract only their lords and
masters. so in China a matron combs
her hair severely back and fashions it
into knot at the nape Of the neck.
But a maiden with the world of
matrimony all before her is permitted
by custom-to draw all her silken
hair into one great roll at the side of
her head and over one ear, there to
confine it into a net Of finest pearls
and diamonds and opals-fit, quite, for
a kings ransom.
1t is a very pretty fashion-among
the Chinese women-and vastly be-
coming to little Miss WI. Her hands
are long and slender and her feet the
feet of a five-year-old child. Her tiny
beieweled shoes have high white heels
higher than any Of the time of the
ouis. She is five feet and an inch tall
perhaps, including, of course, her
heels. and her face is a plump oval
with lines that just fit the Oriental
Idea of beauty.
Miss Wu's eyes are long and narrow
and as black as the prOverbial ace OF
spades. with whites that are positively
blue they are so clear. Her skin is
tinted with cream and her lids fold OF
pleat over at the corners, very much
more aslant than Mrs. Wu's.
Not one drop of plebeian blood flows
in Miss Wu's veins. for she is the
blood relation Of Madame WI, as vel
as her ward and adopted daughter
and even now she carries herself likl
a beauty and a belle.
Miss WI is accomplished Shl
plays on the Chinese harp-a sort o
Lutte that is beaten with two sticks o
bamboo-and she sings a little, bu
only for her relatives and friends-no
as a public accomplishment.
In her family circle she plays man,
clever and intricate Chinese games Il
which our bridge and even chess is a
child's play.
Madame WI is a most intelligen
woman as we'll as a refined lady, ant
comes from a family noted for il
prOgressiveness.
Her father. for instance, the head o
the great Eo family, was the first maj
in China to divide his fortune equalL
between his sons and daughters. Sucl
a thing had never been known in tn
FlOwery Empire before, but no cata
clysm followed.
A brother of Mrs. WI was graduates
at oxford and married an English gin
OF excellent family, taking her hOm
to China to live. He never too
another wife, though he had but on
daughter by the English spouse. AM
after the death of his wife he vent Il
England to live and educate hi
daughter, because he believed his VIII
would have wished it.