She's 105
On March 5 Madame Chiang Kai-shek celebrated her 105th birthday.
Born in 1897 as Soong May-ling, the Republican China's former first lady has seen, and participated in, some most dramatic changes in Chinese history. Her father, Charles Soong, was among the earliest Chinese who studied in the United States and who, upon returned to China, made his fortune in banking and other businesses, first by selling the Bible in his capacity as a Methodist minister. Her three daughters, also educated in the U.S., all married well - extremely well, one should say. The middle sister, Ching-ling, became the wife of Dr. Sun Yat-set, who led the Revolution of 1911 that topped the Qing Dynasty and founded the Republic of China. Influenced by Sun's progressive views, Ching-ling later sympathesized and cooperated with Chinese Communist revolutionaries; she eventually served as the president of the Communist People's Republic of China. May-ling, the youngest sister, married Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who succeeded Dr. Sun Yat-sen as the head of the Republic of China after Sun passed away in 1925. Chiang led China's war against Japan from 1937 to 1945 and ruled China till 1949 when his government was overthrown by Chinese Communists. The eldest of the three sisters, Ai-ling, married a banker who was one of China's richest men and later served his brother-in-law Chiang as his primer minister.
After retreating from Mainland China to the island of Taiwan in 1949, the Chiang and Soong family continued to dominate what was remained of the Republic of China for decades. The Generalissimo died in 1975, a year earlier than his archrival Communist leader Mao Zedong. Madame Chiang then retired to the United States and has since lived in New York. In recent years, as a new generation of political leaders in Taiwan came to power, the traditional prestige and influence of the Chiang and Soong family has come under attack, so much so that members of the family threatened that they would dig up the old generalissimo's remains and move them across the Taiwan Strait back to his home province in Mainland China.
And insofar as the Soong family legacy is concerned, one North Carolina tobacco and textile magnate played a significant part in getting it all started. It was Julian Carr who, over a century ago, underwrote Charlie Soong's education at Duke and Vanderbilt.
Here are a few pictures of the Soong sisters and their husbands:
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