Each one of Jean's passions led quite naturally into exploration and fulfillment in multiple disciplines. In 1934, at the age of 12, the then chubby little girl started collecting oriental art, buying a porcelain box she 'just liked' at a shop on 48th Street in Union City. She committed her weekly fifty-cent allowance to it until she was able to take it home.

It soon became apparent Jean had an 'eye' for hidden value in the items she loved. In the years after she received her degree in Fine Arts, with further studies at New York University and the China Institute, she created the Tao Yin Gallery. An earlier venture was Jewelry by Tao Yin, which she designed and manufactured in a loft in Union City with the help of 21 employees.

Jean often muses she must have been of oriental heritage in another life, hence her affinity for the culture's art. In her vernacular, "Tao Yin" means, quite literally, "the philosophy of the feminine." She had the phrase trademarked when she was only 18.