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[[Left margin]] MIAMI DAILY NEWS 
MIAMI, FLA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 17,1941 [[Left margin]]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 1941

China Looks For Help From Mercy Aviators Now Being Organized

China and America have joined forces to "bomb" disaster victims with medicine and relief supplied tied to para chutes. This is the program planned by two famous women aviators, Ruth Nicholas and Ya-Ching Lee, who are spending this week at Macfadden-Deauville hotel organizing Relief Wings in Miami.
In a Beechcraft plane donated by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Miss Nichols and Miss Lee flew down for the All-American Air Maneuvers to start their national Relief Wings tour.
"Relief Wings will carry out the humanitarian spirit of Quaker Relief work," Miss Nichols emphasized. "At present we would be shot down if we entered Europe,

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RUTH NICHOLS

so we will send our European funds direct to the Quakers, who have set up stations throughout Europe to feed people. Later, we hope to be able to enter battlefields."
Miss Lee, who is flying with Miss Nichols as Chinese representative, says: "People do not realize how great the need of China is after three-and-a-half years of war. "We know that Europe suffers, but people do not comprehend how much more extensive suffering is in China after a longer period of bloodshed. But the spirit of the Chinese is stronger than ever. We are better organized than at the

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LEE YA-CHING

beginning of the war, and much reconstruction work is being done. 
"Distance is so great and transportation so scarce, medical supplies can be sent into the interior efficiently only by airplane. Where planes cannot land, we can drop supplies with parachutes. Some doctors must wait six weeks for supplies sent by land, and in many cases must operate without antiseptics."
In spite of the war, an extensive mass education program is under way in China, Miss Lee said. Universities and schools were bombed first, so students built new ones far in the interior. Many Chinese were so anxious for education they walked 2,000 miles to reach the new schools, according to Miss Lee.
"China has enough manpower not to conscript her men," Miss Lee explained. "Many people are better fitted for other things than fighting, so they serve China in their own field. We rely on our professional soldiers, and do not have to train men for war at the last minute. China does not lack soldiers, only equipment.
"We will never give up," she concluded. "Victory will be ours."

Only Precious Stones
Miss Lee always wears American-made shoes and her jet black hair is cut in a long bob, with loose curls piled high on the top of her head.
Miss Lee tells us that the well-dressed Chinese women wears beautiful jewelry...usually earrings, bracelets and brooches to match. She differs from her Western sisters in that she never wears costume jewelry. If she cannot afford precious stones, she wears none at all...diamonds, pearls, jade and emeralds are her favourite gems.
Miss Lee herself has a huge wardrobe of magnificent clothes, and NOT ONE is made by machine. It takes months or longer after the order is placed with her dressmakers to receive a single dress. That's understandable when you examine them.
Her daytime clothes differ from her evening gowns only in fabrics. The dress she wore when we saw her was an exquisite organdie matelasse with white background and printed design of pastel flowers. It had several rows of rose-colored binding down the sides, around the high collar and across the yoke.
The detail in all of Miss lee's clothes is perfection. No fashionably-dressed Chinese woman, for instance, wears buttons that come from a shop. Each is painstakingly hand made...and on no two dresses are they alike, but usually patterned after one of the flowers in the material of the dress. 

Lines Do Change
Miss Lee tells us that while the straight line silhouette never changes, very often styles do change. Sometimes it is more fashionable for skirts to be shorter. There may be a new line or length in sleeves. But never does the Chinese woman wear a low cut neckline.
It was surprising to us to learn from Miss Lee that the style which many of us have seen, the long tight dress with pajama trouser is definitely passe...The newest Chinese style is the ankle-length dress (sleeveless in summer), with two slits in the skirt, one on each side., and cut to the knee, to give freedom of motion. Under these are worn satin and lace slips.
The rich Chinese woman has many furs, designed like the ones worn in this country.
Her evening wraps may be fur capes, three-quarter length fur coats or brightly cloth coats. She never, never wears the embroidered satin mandarin jackets we see worn in this country! "Those," smiles Miss Lee, "are for tourists to take back home!"

Both Are Heirlooms
In Miss Lee's wardrobe of magnificently hand-embroidered evening gowns, only two show Western influence...have long skirts, tunic tops. One tunic is fashioned of antique gold-embroidered fabric, the predominating design of a dragon. (She explains, too, that many years ago only members of the Imperial family were allowed to wear a dragon-embroidered gown.)
The material in this particular gown is hundreds of years old, yet in perfect condition.
Another evening gown of Miss Lee's has the rarest of all embroideries, known as Pekin. This also is an heirloom. Two other evening gowns (with three-quarter length tunics topping slightly flared long skirts) were made by a famous Chinese designer, Helen Tsang, who is successfully adapting Chinese fabrics for the clothes of smart New York women...and idea we predict (after talking to Ya-Ching Lee and seeing her clothes) would be well worth investigating!

Women of Far East Could Teach Lesson!
Columnist Impressed By Oriental Approach To Style, Cites Ya-Ching Lee's Wardrobe To Prove Her Point
By KARYL LODGE

DO YO UREALIZE that a thousand years before Christ, when women of the Western world were clad only in the skins of animals, that those in the Far East were wearing gold encrusted brocades and rich silks?
Today women of all nations have one strong, common bond--the desire to wear beautiful clothes.
With a background of centuries of culture, women of the Orient have developed a style sense befitting their own types. While women of the Western world have enslaved themselves to the fickle whims of fashion, their favorite is a skirt of the straight-line silhouette of their ancestors.
Western women, in fact, could learn a lot from the perfectly-poised women of the East, who stress rich fabrics, hand embroideries and exquisite workmanship in clothes.

Visitor Is Typical
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Miss Lee

Visiting in Miami is one of China's typical modern young women...Miss Ya-Ching Lee, outstanding aviatrix.
Miss Ya-Ching Lee came here with a group of women fliers attending the All-American Air Meet in behalf of Relief Wings, Inc., an organization to acquaint the public with the service that aviation can offer in meeting humanitarian needs, Everyone who's met her has been charmed, not only by her personality, but by her dress.
Miss Lee has great interest in fashions. She admires the clothes worn by American and European women...yet she always wears Oriental clothes, except when flying.
Then she chooses either slacks or a uniform designed for freedom of action. Her favorite is a skirt sky-blue wool, cut like a culotte with an overlapping panel, a blouse to match, a cloud-gray suede jackets with gray calot, low-heeled gray shoes and a large gray purse.