At the turn of the 20th century, amidst the “Century of Humiliation” which so far included: two Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) where western governments supported invasive commercial interests forcing China to allow trade in Opium, lasting from 1839-1917, creating millions of addicts and countless ruined lives; forfeiture of territory to Great Britain and France; the numerous gunboat diplomacy “treaties” forcing trade concessions at numerous Chinese ports; the seizure of Chinese territories by neighboring countries Russia and Japan; cultural and economic conflicts with missionaries and westerners displacing traditional Chinese ethos and values; the punitive and wholesale looting and destruction of the Summer Palace where hundreds of years of Chinese art were stolen or callously destroyed; and the Western led British and French’s crushing of the Qing Dynasty supported Boxer Rebellion, Chinese people were justifiable wary of interaction with the West.

Despite this, there were some American individuals who made their way to China and whose presence and character help initiate mutually beneficial commercial ties between China and the U.S. Among them were Helen Fette and Walter Nichols whose contributions and collaboration with the Chinese help channel the inimical and seemingly limitless Chinese artistic energies into  a new industry: the manufacture and export of rugs. From 1921-1941, Chinese rugs were made in volume an shipped almost exclusively to the United States.

Helen Fette

Helen Fette, a Vassar graduate of 1906, moved to Peking in 1919 with her young family only to find that the job promised to her husband, developing a public health program for the Chinese government, had evaporated. Franklin Fette, undeterred and true to his word, proceeded with his work anyway, working for 2 years without pay. Pivoting, Helen took a job teaching at the Methodist Missionary School. Provoked by a first hand knowledge of the horror of the Famine of 1920 all around, Helen, after disposing of a rug for a friend, came across the idea of organizing rug weaving operation. After a frustrating search, she eventually teamed up with a respected factory owner, Li Meng Shu in 1921 and Fette-Li Rugs was formed. Introducing a French design sensibility reminiscent of Aubusson and Savonnerie design schools and later adopting and adapting the French Art Deco movement, The Fette-Li Rug Company produced rugs until World War II. She was an American treasure.