Soong

Home > People > History > Chinese and Taiwanese History: Biographies

Chiang, Madam (1897–2003).The marriage of Chiang Kai-shek in 1927 to the American educated and Christian Soong Mei-ling, sister of T. V. Soong, represented the alliance between Chiang's victorious faction of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Shanghai finance and industry, as well as bringing international connections and acceptance. Madam Chiang was a woman of distinction, who combined charm, intuition, intelligence, beauty, and courage, all of which she used to effect in attracting support, particularly foreign support, to her husband's regime. To her finer qualities must be added a quick temper and considerable hauteur, more readily apparent to the Chinese than to most foreigners.

With the start of the China incident in July 1937, Madam Chiang, who at some risk to herself had played an important role in the resolution of the Sian incident (see Chiang Kai-Shek) acquired new prominence. She organized work on behalf of China's war orphans (see also children), for which she received large sums of money from all over the world, and was involved in the establishment of co-operatives, war work among China's women, care for the wounded, children's education, and the rehabilitation of the homeless. In this she was greatly aided by a publicity campaign targeting official and private organizations throughout the democracies. Inevitably, however, propaganda notwithstanding, all this effort hardly scratched the surface of China's suffering.

A Lt-colonel in the Chinese air force, and for a time its commander, Madam Chiang was also honorary commander of the American Volunteer Group, or Flying Tigers, in which capacity she championed the views of its commander Chennault with her husband. Her relations with her husband's Allied Chief of Staff, Lt-General Stilwell were less happy, but without her mediation the break between Chiang and Stilwell would probably have come sooner.

The acme of Madam Chiang's wartime career was reached with her triumphant visit to the USA from November 1942 to May 1943. Speaking to packed rallies across the country, addressing Congress, her face adorning the cover of Time Magazine (its editor, Henry Luce, with his China-missionary background, was one of her strongest supporters), she achieved a virtual apotheosis in the eyes of the American public. She brought China's war with Japan to the USA, and inter alia ensured that a reluctant Treasury could no longer delay a large and much needed bullion shipment to China. That her petulant behaviour in private exasperated Roosevelt was not widely known at the time.

As the war approached its end and the inefficiency and corruption of Chiang's KMT government became impossible to ignore, Madam Chiang alone was not enough to ensure continued foreign sympathy, and her political importance diminished accordingly. She had played a significant role in China's struggle, but more than ever it was apparent that her influence had been far greater on foreigners than on her own people. See also women at war.

Bibliography

Hahn, E. , The Soong Sisters (London, 1942).
Seagrave, S. , The Soong Dynasty (New York, 1985).

Soong , Mandarin Song, Chinese family, prominent in public affairs. Soong Yao-ju or Charles Jones Soong, 1866-1918, graduated from Vanderbilt Univ. and, after returning to China (1886), was a Methodist missionary in Shanghai. He resigned from mission work in 1892 and thereafter was a successful merchant. Soong Tzu-wen, better known as T. V. Soong, 1894-1971, his most distinguished son, was educated at Harvard and later (1917-23) engaged in private business in China. He occupied several official positions in the Kuomintang government, including governor of the Central Bank of China and minister of finance (1928-31, 1932-33); minister of foreign affairs (1942-45); and president of the Executive Yüan (1945-47). After failing to reconcile Communist and Nationalist governments in 1949, he moved to the United States. The three daughters of C. J. Soong were also prominent. Soong Ai-ling, 1890-1973, graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. She married K'ung Hsiang-hsi and engaged in child welfare work. Soong Ch'ing-ling or Song Qingling, 1892-1981, also graduated from Wesleyan College. She early became prominent in revolutionary politics, and in 1914 she married Sun Yat-sen in Japan. After Sun's death (1925) she was elected (1926) to the Kuomintang central executive committee. After the expulsion (1927) of the Communists, she resigned and went abroad. The outbreak (1937) of the Sino-Japanese War reconciled her with the Kuomintang, until 1946. From 1949 until her death she served as vice chairman of the government of the People's Republic of China. In 1951 she was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize, and in 1953 a collection of her writings, Struggle for New China, was published. Soong Mei-ling, c.1897-2003, graduated from Wellesley College. She married Chiang Kai-shek in 1927. She was a member of the Legislative Yüan (1930-32) and secretary-general of the Chinese Aeronautical Affairs Commission (1936-38). In 1945 she became a member of the central executive committee of the Kuomintang. Through numerous articles, broadcasts, and travel to the United States she sought to enlist American support for the Chinese Nationalists against the Communists. She lived in the United States after Chiang's death (1975).

Bibliography: See E. Hahn, The Soong Sisters (1941, repr. 1970); S. Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty (1985); L. T. Li, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek (2006).

Soong, Tse-ven Paul ( ‘T.V.’ Soong) (b. 4 Dec. 1894, d. 24 Apr. 1971). Chinese Minister of Finance 1928–33 Born in Shanghai, he graduated from Harvard before returning to China, where he became a pivotal supporter of Chiang Kai-shek. He was responsible for the financial administration in the National Government, introducing a finance reform, establishing the Central Bank of China in Guangzhou (Canton), and financing the Northern Expedition. A supporter of cooperation with the Communist Party against the Japanese, his financing skills were constantly outstripped by Chiang's need for increasing military spending. As Chiang's representative to the USA during World War II and as Prime Minister 1945–7, he secured many substantial loans from the USA, though much of that money went into his own pocket. He retired to the USA in 1949 as one of the richest people in the world.