A week after moving to live with the Williams', Skye received a call from the State Department. The Official said Skye and a companion of her choice had been invited to visit China for seven days on a cultural exchange next month, a visit that had been approved by both Governments.
"But why?"
"Because you have significant impact as a writer in parts of China and you will visit four areas where your popularity is significant and at the first of those centers you have been invited to open a regional doll exhibition of some magnitude. It has been requested you bring your doll with you and in all probability the area where your doll was made will be identified and there is a possibility that the doll marker will be identified as well."
Skye accepted and invited Glenys to accompany her but Glenys revealed a fear of flying and so Myra went. In China an interpreter and a Chinese female photojournalist who also spoke excellent English joined them to accompany them on the short tour.
The doll exhibition was huge, the exhibition halls covering more than one and a half acres with each group of halls exhibiting a different class of dolls. Two security guards arrived at Skye's hotel with a steel box and Daisy was placed in the box. The interpreter said, "These guards will keep in close contact with you all morning. Security is deemed necessary because officials don't wish to risk an international incident by someone deciding to acquire Daisy."
Skye thought protection for Daisy was a great idea.
The official opening was held in the open outside the main hall where the exhibits were like a Hall of Fame. The assembled, tightly packed crowd was the largest mass of people Skye and Myra had ever seen.
The speeches were long and all Skye had to do was to step forward, accept a pair of engraved scissors to keep as a memento and then say, 'I declare this impressive exhibition open' and cut the tape.
The security men then unlocked the box and handed Daisy to Skye. Skye turned to the crowd and held Daisy high and a huge murmur swept through the crown and then a tremendous chant broke out, although not everyone took part. The word being called was clearly, 'Daisy, Daisy, Daisy'.
The interpreter shouted to Skye, "That chant is because many people here are aware of the long-running comic strip that features Daisy as the heroine. They are astonished and respect you because they had no idea a person from the United States of America could hold dearly a rag doll made in a village of insignificance in China."
The chant died away and the assembly began to disperse.
The official in charge led the guests to the main hall where refreshments were served. He then presented to Skye a woman dressed in a pinstriped business skirt and jacket. The journalist with Skye's party sensed something was up and began taking photographs.
"Good morning Miss Skye," said the woman. "I am Xue Ai-ling and you may call me Ai-ling which is my first name. You won't recognize me because you people from the West have this funny idea that we Chinese all look vaguely familiar. We have many jokes about that."
Skye smiled and said, "You are the business lady who received my authority to print my story about the doll maker written when I was fourteen."
"You astonish me," said the woman. "I certainly did not recognize you."
"I didn't remember you. I just thought it's most likely that the only woman in all of China who would have ever met me would be that woman who wanted to publish my story."
"And I am also the official in a printing company who decided your books should be published here in China under license because our comic strip about the adventures of Daisy we had written for us in your style continued in popularity."
The chief official, who had been listening to his translator, clapped and said 'Bravo' and everyone in his party clapped and said something that sounded like bravo.
"Your writings have made me very famous," said the woman.
The head official clapped and his associates joined in the clapping.
"I knew you were coming here and I would like you to accept this gift from me. Through your influenced I have become wealthy."
A younger woman came forward and opened a jewelry case and Ai-ling held up a magnificent gold bracelet and everyone clapped as she placed it around Skye's left wrist.
"This is a huge surprise and a most wonder gift. I shall always treasure it"
Everyone clapped.
"Now please allow me to hold Daisy," Ai-ling said. "A line of elite doll makers, who are also doll historians because that is the tradition, from various regions but not from all of China of course, will file past and examine Daisy briefly. If Daisy was made in this part of China she will be recognized."
Some thirty master craftsmen had looked at Daisy when one of them shouted and called something and a young guy raced off.
Ai-ling and the elderly man conversed.
She told Skye, "Your Daisy was made in the 1920s and that doll maker is no longer alive but his son, now an old man, is here helping with his son's exhibition. He comes now."
Almost ten minutes later an elderly man was escorted in. He examined the back of Daisy's head and pointed and nodded.
"Oh can you believe it," said the Chinese photojournalist. "He says his father made that doll. The head-flap is sewn in cross-stitching and that is usual but halfway up on the left-hand side of the head are four lots of double cross-stitches, his father's mark as doll maker."
The official translator took over and the retired doll maker was pleased to know that one of his father's dolls had gone to America and had survived. He offered to replace the missing leg.
"Please ask him what would he do if that were his daughter's doll. Tell him a dog tore the leg off and ran off with it. My mother stitched the hole closed because I didn't want her to make a new leg."
The interpreter repeated that and the old man smiled and nodded at Skye.
"He says you are a good doll owner. The doll is in excellent condition. He says if his daughter had not wanted the leg replaced he would not have replaced it. However his daughter had been spoilt and she would have thrown the damage doll away and demanded another one. He says his daughter was not a good doll owner."
"Oh lovely story. Please tell him that."
The guy laughed.
Skye took off her watch and handed it to the interpreter. "Please ask the son of Daisy's maker to accept this watch. Daisy and I are very pleased to know approximately how old she is."
The interpreter said, "He thanks you and Daisy very much because he doesn't have a watch. He thinks the year could have been 1923 and says that would be a good year to settle on. He could name the village but says it's too small to find on any map. The village is in this Province of Jiangsu and that borders Shanghai Province to the south."
* * *
