A Day in Shanghai

I love this photo taken in 1973 when Payne was among the first American journalists to visit China (we called it "Red China" back then) following President Richard Nixon's historic visit the previous year.
Among those who traveled in Payne's group was Reg Murphy of the Atlanta Constitution. Here is how he recalled the afternoon the photo was taken.
"Ethel Payne is a fairly large black woman and by Chinese standards worthy of long stares. One day on a Shanghai street she wore a coat which looked like leopard skin and in the land of the blue Mao jackets she could be mistaken for a foreign potentate.
A group of mischievous white American reporters traveling in the same journalistic tour came up with a great idea. They hustled around into her intended direction. As she came past, the reporters began a slow and solemn salaam.
The crowd of Chinese following Miss Payne turned big-eyed in wonder. Their suspicions had been confirmed: This was the potentate of some rich country visiting the land of militant equality.
A lesser person would have lost her poise and either laughed or castigated her 'subjects.' Ethel Payne did neither. She accepted the deep bows with a trifling nod of her head and swept on past in her leopard-skin coat. Only when the troupe was back in their cars did she finally lose control and laugh until great tears rolled down her cheeks."