It began in 1834 as an advertising gimmick: In order to promote sales of their Far East Oriental imported goods, the Carnes Brothers procured for their company a real-life spokesperson. This was the teenage Afong Moy, known to her New York viewers only as the "Chinese Lady"—a rarity in North America at that time—whose duties were to, well, be her own sweet Cantonese self. That involved demonstrating the techniques of eating with chopsticks, drinking green tea from cups without handles and strolling her dollhouse stage on cosmetically crippled feet.
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