Song Qingling (1893–1981)

Chinese political leader. Name variations: Madame Sun Yat-sen or Sun Yatsen; Soong Ching Ling; Soong Qingling; Song Chingling or Ching-ling; Sung Chingling. Born Jan 27, 1893, in Shanghai; died May 29, 1981, in Beijing; 2nd dau. of Han Chiao-shun, universally known as Charlie Jones Song (publisher of Bibles) and Ni Guizhen (Ni Kwei-tseng, known later as Song Guizhen); sister of Song Ailing and Song Meiling; educated at Potwin's private school in Summit, New Jersey, and at Wesleyan College, 1907–13; m. Sun Yat-sen (father of the Chinese Revolution), in 1915 (died 1925).

Pro-Communist wife of Sun Yat-sen and vice chair of the People's Republic of China, who was a direct and powerful participant in the 20th-century struggle between Nationalists and Communists that changed both China and the world; joined husband in campaigns against warlords and encouraged women to participate in Chinese revolution by organizing women's training schools and associations; elected executive member of Guomindang Central Committee (1926); went on 4-year self exile (1927–31); with sisters, gave radio broadcasts to American audience on the Anti-Japanese War in China (1940); was isolated from the rest of family when the Communists, led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, won her allegiance as Sun Yat-sen's widow as they destroyed the regime of Chiang Kai-shek and confiscated the Chinese property of the Kung and Song families; remained in China, leading the China Welfare League to establish new hospitals and provide relief for wartime orphans and famine refugees; when Chinese Communists established a united government in Beijing (1949), was invited as a non-Communist to join the new government and elected vice chair of the People's Republic of China; awarded the Stalin International Peace Prize (1951); while active in the international peace movement and Chinese state affairs (1950s), never neglected her work with China Welfare and her lifelong devotion to assisting women and children; was one of the most respected women in China, who inspired many of her contemporaries as well as younger generations; made honorary president of the People's Republic of China (1981).

See also Liu Jia-quan, Biography of Song Qingling (1988); Roby Eunson, The Soong Sisters (Watts, 1975); Emily Hahn, The Soong Sisters (Doubleday, 1941); Sterling Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty (Harper & Row, 1985); and Women in World History.