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).
